I October salon, the most important international art event in Belgrade and the country, is in danger - it is uncertain whether and how it will be held this year.
The October Salon is a biennial manifestation, this year should be held for the 61st time, it is on the list of important cultural manifestations for Belgrade. He has been organizing it since 1986 Cultural Center of Belgrade (KCB).
Danger warning
The program sector of the Cultural Center of Belgrade warned of the aforementioned danger in an open letter addressed to the Mayor of Belgrade, the Secretariat for Culture of Belgrade, the Board of the October Salon, the acting director of the KCB and the professional public.
They found themselves in a position, they say, to organize the 61st October Salon in less than four months, with four times less funds than was the previous practice. They believe that this is an unprofessional and irresponsible approach of the authorities towards this event.
According to the program department of the KCB, less than four months are not enough for the complex activities of curatorial and artistic research work, familiarization, connection, inclusion of various actors, program planning, preparation of documentation, tendering, work organization and realization, which the practice of organizing the October Salon has so far entailed, given that the event goes beyond the format of a contemporary art exhibition.
They say that the organizational plans of the competent authorities are unclear, non-transparent and unprofessional, and that they are still not familiar with the concept of the October Salon.
New Board
This is not their first address in which they try to alarm the authorities.
Back on October 20 last year, they reminded that 2025 should be the preparatory year for the 61st edition - which was not, and at that moment Oktobarac did not even have a Board that would organize the necessary preparations.
At the time, they stated that this entails a series of activities: selection of Board members who choose the artistic director, work on the concept, selection of artists, collaborators, exhibition spaces and programs, as well as planning costs for further implementation.
The board of the October Salon was appointed only in December 2025. This means that until then the preparations for October, which we repeat should have been done during 2025, were not realized. As a result, the funds provided for that purpose were not used.
The members of the new Board are Vuk Veličković Vidor, Mihailo Milunović, both fine artists, Jelena Medaković, Secretary for Culture of the City, Kolja Božović and Marko Luković, both from the Faculty of Applied Arts. There are no members from the Cultural Center in the new Board, as was the case until now.
They could not choose an artistic director because even before their appointment, in June, the City Assembly abolished the position of artistic director by adopting a new rulebook and left that role to the Board.
No art director and no contract
In the meantime, again by the Decision of the City of Belgrade, the position of artistic director was returned to the Rulebook on the October Salon.
And yet, the new Board has not agreed on a new artistic director since December, which means that the October Salon still does not have one.
Apart from the artistic director of the October Salon, the Cultural Center of Belgrade does not even have a contract with the Secretariat for Culture on the realization of this year's edition.
They are not the only ones
In the letter, the employees point out that Oktobarac is "just one example of the devaluation of contemporary creativity in our country".
They note that they join the "appeals of other workers in cultural institutions" and indicate that they are working in increasingly worse conditions "due to the absence of any dialogue with competent institutions, personnel policy subordinated to party employment, more frequent dismissals, non-transparency of the decision-making process which leaves no possibility for solving problems, but directly affects the collapse of collectives, institutions and manifestations".
And all this with "continuous reduction of the budget for annual programs". They say that "planned financial resources for the 61st edition of the October Salon were reduced four times compared to the allocated funds for the previous editions of the salon, and that in the circumstances of ever-increasing price increases."
They emphasized that they consider everything they stated to be an unprofessional and irresponsible approach and therefore firmly stand behind the position that such decision-making and planning of events of public importance contribute to the appearance of normality and regularity of the process.
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