“The October Salon Board, the members of which, since September 2021, have been Gordana Goncić, Chairwoman, Danica Jovović Prodanović, Jelena Medaković, Aleksandar Ilić and Vuk Veličković, unanimously decides to delegate the concept and realisation of the 59^th October Salon to the Cultural Centre of Belgrade. The Board additionally determines that the next edition of the manifestation is to be held in 2022, in order to overcome the delay in realisation of the previous edition, which occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and return to the established budgeting cycle.” (An excerpt from the Board Decision adopted on 30 October 2021, which can be downloaded in entirety from the October Salon and Cultural Centre of Belgrade’s websites)

Directions in which the concept will be developed
In recapitulating its experience of many years in organising the October Salon, the Cultural Centre of Belgrade as the author of the manifestation’s “leap” edition, decided to develop the concept towards re-examination of the current practices, creation of different possibilities for the production of art, organisation and conceptualisation 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 a central exhibition space, in this edition we will avoid the common practice and conceptualise 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 centre which unifies, to create association and community. We would try to walk fast, providing that we do not have much time for the preparation and realisation, and speak clearly (M. Seničić), i.e. be transparent in our relations and interactions. We will talk on the preparations and our work process in public spaces.

We believe that this type of reconsideration, which comes just before the October Salon’s 60^th jubilee edition planned for 2024, would contribute to reorganising and activating the potentials which 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.

We wish to remind you that the October Salon of Fine and Applied Art of Serbia was founded in 1960 upon an initiative by the People’s Committee of the City of Belgrade, as an exhibition of significant works by Serbian artists, and it has been opened every year on 20 October, to commemorate the day of Belgrade’s liberation in WWII. We propose for the 59^th October Salon (Belgrade Biennale) to be opened on 20 October 2022, not wishing to thus relegate it to history, but rather to re-examine the ideas and values upon which it was founded, and to consider the possibility of their present application.

The Cultural Centre of Belgrade’s collective which, in collaboration with numerous associates, individuals, organisations and institutions, works on the concept of the 59^th October Salon (Belgrade Biennale), includes: Zorana Đaković Minniti, together with Jasmina Petković, Danica Jovović Prodanović, Katarina Kostandinović, Jana Gligorijević, Vesna Danilović and Ratko Rakin.