October Art Salon, owing to its tradition of more than four decades, has become a point of reference of Serbian culture.  It is a representative event featuring creators in the broad sphere of visual arts and a great exhibition of authors whose selectors are prominent experts in this area. In the course of its history, the Salon has changed its concept and organizational forms, but it has remained a strong challenge to creative consciousness.

The Salon represents an important segment in the study of the modern Serbian art of the second half of the 20th century. Few years ago Salon became an international event which enabled the start  of a dialogue with the international art scene.

This year’s October Salon, named GOOD LIFE / ГУД ЛАЈФ, under support from City of Belgrade, takes place in one of the most beautiful but also one of the most neglected monumental edifices in Belgrade – building of Belgrade Shareholders’ Association (former building of the Geodetic Institute). The history of this building, in a way, presents the history of 20th century Serbia.

This inspiring location will be used as a space of ad hoc transformation where the works will be “implanted” in its present condition and in its existing historical narrative and architectural design. Every exhibition, in terms of both its physical and discursive realities, is first and foremost a specific form of exchange within a specific framework and under specific social conditions.

Curators of this year’s October Salon, Branislav Dimitrijević and Mika Hannula, assembled forty participants from Finland, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Netherland, Great Britan and Serbia.

Central interest of curators and artists collaborating in this exhibition, is the relationship between spatial and social imagination, the possibility of transforming a space into a place, and a reflective narration into an active physical presence. The architectural setting of the Geodetic Institute building, and the narratives making up its history, are the starting points for reflections on social visions, promises and delusions, typical primarily of the local “version” of the attempt at, gradual progress in and eventual standstill on the path of the social modernization.

The age of modernity was characterized by the capability of forging a vision of the future, which nowadays tends to be dismissed from the relativistic position of skepticism and irony. However, the basic promise of modernity, which essentially boils down to “a good life for everyone”, has remained an irreducible place of bringing together individual desires and social imagination in the process of continual circulation.

Exhibition Opening: Saturday, September 22, 1pm – former building of the Geodetic Institute Karađorđeva 48, Belgrade. The Salon will be open until November 4, 2012.

Dan pre otvaranja izložbe, 20. oktobra, Jurij Sadar će održati predavanje u amfiteatru Arhitektonskog fakulteta sa početkom u 17 časova, na temu “formula“ kao svojevrsnih izraza konceptualne postavke njihovih projekata.

SADAR + VUGA predstavljaju jedan od najistaknutijih evropskih projektantskih biroa sa zavidnom reputacijom i na svetskoj arhitektonskoj sceni. Svojom arhitekturom oni istražuju kako pojedini prostori međusobno komuniciraju unutar određenog projekta, kako komuniciraju sa korisnicima, posetiocima, gradom. Predviđanje finalnog efekta procesa komunikacije, predstavlja početak za stvaranje određenog ambijenta, a izrada komunikacijske arhitektonske šeme generiše nove koncepte i potencijalno nove arhitektonske ikone.

Osnovni elementi izložbe su “formule“, termin koji SADAR + VUGA koriste da izraze konceptualne postavke svojih projekata. Primeri “vertikalnih holova“, “kinetičkih i ormanentalnih struktura“, “kontinualnih putanja“, “suprotstavljenih fasada“ i drugih arhitektonskih koncepata, pružaju mogućnost posetiocu da shvati dinamičke procese koji transformišu prostore, kao i principe i uslove razvoja grada. Formule kao arhitektonski recepti i sredstva komunikacije koja povezuju sliku i priču projekta, predstavljaju fuziju arhitektonske ikonografije i atmosfere. One nisu zabetonirani projekti za zamrznute gradove, već otvoreni kodovi urbanosti kao potencijalni generički model grada koji u istorijskom, dimenzionalnom i značenjskom smislu možda nikada neće dostići metropolitske fetiše.

Za više informacija o autorima i izložbi www.sadarvuga.com.
Za više informacija o predavanju www.arh.bg.ac.rs.