Plaisir d’amour ne reste qu’un moment, Le chagrin d’amour dure toute la vie.
The pleasure of love lasts only a Moment. The grief of love lasts a lifetime. Jean-Paul-Égide Martini
The first Autumn Salon was organized in Paris in 1903 as an antidote to the blindness of the art establishment by accepting artists who had no other place to show their work. Paintings were exhibited by, the as yet unknown, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, François Picabia, Paul Gauguin and many others.
The 56th Belgrade October Salon, a distant relative of this initiative, will pay homage to this illustrious past by showing a number of artists who do not yet have an international platform for their work alongside already established artists. It will also reflect on what transient pleasures, and its opposite, signify when expressed in art today.
In 1784 Jean-Paul-Égide Martini composed Plaisir d’Amour, a classic love song based on a poem by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian who, one of many victims of the Terror of the French Revolution died in 1794. But Florian’s words have echoed across time to still speak in the present, both in Martini’s original arrangement and deformed into kitsch, at once eternal and fleeting.
Fully aware of such historical vicissitudes and paradoxes, this October Salon will concentrate on what role emotion plays in contemporary art and how it may be framed in ways that are neither banal nor kitsch. This may include the not-so-simple pleasures of love, humor, horror and any other perspectives that art may bring to bear on the fragility of human experience and life which, in itself, may have a transient or long-lasting impact.
The Pleasure of Love, the 56th October Salon, will be composed of around 60 artists from Serbia, the Balkan region and the world at large chosen directly by the Artistic Director and from an open submission. The Salon will take place in Belgrade City Museum and in Cultural Center of Belgrade (Art gallery, Artget gallery and Podroom gallery) from 23th September until 6th of November.
Curated by: David Elliott, UK
Artists: Ketuta ALEXI-MESKHISHVILI, Lara BALADI, Andreas BLANK, Hilde BORGEMANS, Antonia BOŽANIĆ, Jovan ČEKIĆ, Kristina DRAŠKOVIĆ BOČKOV, Biljana ĐURĐJEVIĆ, Cecilia EDEFALK, Nezaket EKICI/ Marcus SHAHAR, EPHEMERKI EPHEMERKI / Jašna DMITROVSKA & Dragana ZAREVSKA, Bojan FAJFRIĆ, Mariana HAHN, Jenny HOLZER, Ana HUŠMAN, Leiko IKEMURA, Sinisa ILIĆ, Ivana IVKOVIĆ, Tadija JANIČIĆ, Peter JOHANSSON, William KENTRIDGE, k.r.u.ž.o.k. Collective, Johanna KANDL, Gülsün KARAMUSTAFA, Franziska KLOTZ, Irena KOVAC, David KRIPPENDORFF, Janet LAURENCE, Via LEWANDOWSKY, Sarah LÜDEMANN, Dejan MARKOVIĆ, Milovan MARKOVIĆ, Natalie MAXIMOVA, Bjørn Melhus, Anuk MILADINOVIĆ, Radenko MILAK, Olga MILISAVLJEVIĆ, Tracey MOFFATT, Nemanja NIKOLIĆ, Vladimir PERIĆ, Susan PHILIPSZ, Sasha PIROGOVA, Siniša RADULOVIĆ, Rena RAEDLE & Vladan JEREMIĆ, Aurora REINHARD, Anila RUBIKU, Arsen SAVADOV, Toni SCHMALE, Lina SELANDER, Asako SHIROKI, Nena SNEŽANA SKOKO, Dimtar SOLAKOV, Jovanka STANOJEVIĆ, SUN Xun, Miloš TOMIĆ, Jelena TRPKOVIĆ, Mariana VASILIEVA, Anastasia VEPREVA, Dejana VUČIĆEVIĆ, YANG Fudong
Belgrade City Museum
(former Military Academy)
40b Resavska Street
11000 Belgrad, Serbia
tel. +381 11 328 35 04
The Cultural Centre of Belgrade
Knez Mihailova 6
11000 Belgrade, Serbia
tel. + 381 (0)11 2621 469
fax. + 381 (0)11 2623 853
Sources:
oktobarskisalon.org/concept-2/
oktobarskisalon.org/artists/
www.mgb.org.rs/en/find-us
www.kcb.org.rs/Home/tabid/55/language/en-US/Default.aspx