POLICY OF CULTURE AND POLICY OF DISPLAY: THE OCTOBER SALON

Text topic: Mapping of the Space Policies

Text author: Јасмина Чубрило

This paper is about perfomative effects of cultural policies in two socio-political systems differing in concept, forms, establishment and maintenance of continuity but also in initiating transformations of the nationally significant cultural institution/event – the October Salon. Initially started as an exhibition of the best art accomplishments and soon a place to display modern trends in applied arts, the October Salon has been conceptually consistent, and almost resistant to change, for almost three decades. For the last two decades, however, the October Salon has been embracing changes, some of which have even been radical (like switching from national to international). Usually, these transformations were observed as a change of paradigms in modern art: mostly vertical (old/new) and rarely or quite frequently horisontal (contemporary differences). The impacts of ideological matrices on the deliberation, continuation and alternations of the October Salon and the micro-politics of the local art community were not considered or analysed.