"All jobs related to organization and implementation." October salon flow unhindered," he says for "Vreme" Jelena Medakovic, secretary for culture of the city on the occasion of the recent of the open letter of the Program Sector of the Cultural Center of Belgrade (KCB) about the October Salon.
Vuk Veličković Vidor, president of the Board of the October Salon, said the same thing in a letter to the Program Department of KCB.
According to employees, the Board of the October Salon has not yet appointed an artistic director, even though there are only four months left until the start of this biennial manifestation, this year's budget is four times smaller than last year, and the City has not signed a contract with the Cultural Center of Belgrade, which has been organizing this most important national art manifestation since 1986.
Photo: Private archiveJelena Medakovic
Jelena Medaković, who is also a member of the Board of the October Salon, tells "Vreme" that she does not want to justify herself but to point out the facts.
Budget and contract
"It is true that the budget, like last year, was reduced. However, the Secretariat for Culture managed to decide on additional funding for the October salon through a rebalance," says Jelena Medaković.
Then he says that "the signing of the contract has been somewhat postponed", but the "meeting of the City Assembly at which the decision will be made and then the official signing will be carried out" is awaited.
"That technical detail did not in any way disrupt the preparations for the October Salon," emphasizes Jelena Medaković.
Artistic director
"The board of the October Salon was appointed on December 24, 2025. Only after that, the City Assembly adopted a decision on the appointment of an artistic director, selector, curator, editor-in-chief... who will choose the program of cultural manifestations," reminds Jelena Medaković.
"This means that the Board of the October Salon operates according to the previous decision, according to which the Board chooses the program of the event and not the artistic director, with the fact that the Board has the right to hire someone who will help it in this. The current Board has decided to hire a curator, despite its superior expertise."
Medaković states that the curator of this year's October Salon is Nima Hambursin, the director of the MOCO museum from Montpellier, and that "due to the efforts of the Board and especially President Vuk Vidor, he stayed in Belgrade for ten days".
Although the current Board is "highly professional, it includes artists, respected professors, people whose creative and artistic careers as well as vast experience contribute to a faster and more professional organization of the Salon, they decided to hire a curator."
The members of the Committee of the October Salon are Vuk Veličković Vidor (president) and Mihailo Milunović, both fine artists known in Europe, Jelena Medaković, Secretary for Culture of the City, Nikola Kolja Božović and Marko Luković, both professors of the Faculty of Applied Arts, University of Belgrade.
You met the curator.
In the aforementioned letter, Vuk Veličković Vidor reminded the Program Sector that "curator Nima Hambursin, director of the MOCO museum from Montpellier, exists since you met him."
Photo: ScreenshotVuk Vidor
"We brought him to Belgrade and for a week showed him all the institutions, all the galleries, all the spaces, he met several gallerists, artists, etc... in order to get an idea of our scene and the possibilities of the event itself. He will return at the end of June to specify a lot of things".
Then he says: "All of you who have met the curator know that he is a man who has at his disposal two institutions and one academy, for which 75 people work, with all the logistics, possibilities and scope that will be absolutely crucial for the realization of the event, and you saw his enthusiasm and desire to do it in the best way because he was very impressed by what he saw during his stay in Belgrade. His concept is called 'an accident of the universe' based on Andre Malreaux's text and he wrote it while he was in Belgrade. Why all this was not mentioned in the KCB letter is a mystery".
Impressions of our artists
Jelena Medaković says that Nima Hambursin "left Belgrade with exceptional impressions of our scene. He believes that our painters are still not widely discovered, that they paint excellently, and that it is valuable that in Europe only a small number of painters deal with classical media. According to him, our painters have great perspectives and that is why I think that with this year's Salon we have opened an excellent opportunity for our artists."
"Because, regardless of their individually fantastic international careers, artists here still do not have the best conditions for exhibiting. We do not have gallery spaces with fast exhibition dynamics, which makes it impossible for visual artists to work in a way that would help better visibility of the whole scene and, therefore, its placement outside our borders."
Jelena Medaković concludes that the curator's approach is "interesting and represents a real refreshment, which can already be seen on the basis of the curator's written concept. I sincerely hope that individuals, for personal reasons and proprietary interests, will not interfere with the very enthusiastic work of the Board and, for our artists, the important October Salon".
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