The October Salon is a representative manifestation of accomplishments in the field of visual art in Serbia, found and funded by the City of Belgrade. October Salon of Contemporary Arts of Serbia was founded in 1960 by the National Committee of the City of Belgrade as a review of significant works by artists of the Republic of Serbia which is supposed to be organized every year on October 20th in the honor of Belgrade Liberation Day.

Throughout its history, the Salon changed its conception and forms.

In 2004 at the initiative of the long-standing organizer, the Cultural Center of Belgrade, by the decision of the founder, it became an international and important reference point for the Serbian and regional art scene.

The aim of the October Salon is to present the most significant new productions of local and international contemporary visual arts.

THE ART PROGRAM & VENUES ARE AVAILABLE HERE.

The October Salon exhibition from 2004 was curated by Anda Rottenberg, Darka Radosavljević and Nebojša Vilić, René Block and Barbara Hainrich, Lorand Hegyi, Bojana Pejić, Branislava Anđelković, Johan Poussete, and Celia Prado, Galit Eilat and Alenka Gregorič, Branislav Dimitrijević and Mika Hannula, Red Min(e)d, Nicolaus Schafhausen and Vanessa Joan Müller, David Eliott and Gunar and Daniele Kvaran, Ilaria Marotta and Andrea Baccin…

In 2014, by the decision of the City of Belgrade, the October Salon became a biennial event.

59th October Salon (Belgrade Biennale)– The “Leap” Edition will be held 20th October – 4th December 2022 (14th January 2023) in numerous art spaces around the city


In recapitulating its experience of many years in organizing the October Salon, the Cultural Centre of Belgrade as the author of the manifestation’s “Leap” edition, decided to develop the concept towards a re-examination of the current practices, creation of different possibilities for the production of art, organization, and conceptualization of the very exhibition, as well as exchange between the local and the global.

One of the questions to serve as a guideline for further reflection pertains to the possibility, in these testing times, of confirming the relevance of an art exhibition in relation to the context and working conditions. We will explore the potential that an art exhibition may have in the field of the social.

Bearing in mind the lack of central exhibition space, in this edition we will avoid the common practice and conceptualize the exhibition in a different way, trying to identify the venues which would best suit individual works of art. It would be a major challenge for us, in the situation where we do not have a center that unifies, to create association and community. We would try to walk fast, providing that we do not have much time for preparation and realization, and speak clearly (M. Seničić), i.e. be transparent in our relations and interactions. We will talk about the preparations and our work process in public spaces.

We believe that this type of reconsideration, which comes just before the October Salon’s 60th jubilee edition planned for 2024, would contribute to reorganizing and activating the potential that this exhibition may have for the local, as well as for the international scene.

We put the Belgrade Biennale in brackets and offer it for public debate.

THE ART PROGRAM & VENUES ARE AVAILABLE HERE.

by Dragana Kostica
Leave a comment