55th October Salon opens in Belgrade

BELGRADE - The 55th October Salon opened at a packed Belgrade City Museum late Friday, featuring works by 32 Serbian and international artists.

Disappearing Things, the concept of this year's Salon - proposed by curators Nikolaus Schaffhausen and Vanessa Joan Miller - is inspired by the phenomenon of Internet social networks, in particular, the Snapchat application.

What makes this increasingly popular communication application special is that it destroys every message sent - a text, a photograph or a video - after just a few seconds.

In 2013 alone, more digital images were created than in the entire history of photography up to that point because everything is photographed everywhere, which, in turn, influences the perceptions of history and time.

The curators explained that the Salon addresses historical amnesia, the obsession with the present moment and a form of personal expression that blurs the boundaries of subjectivity.

The selected works of art deal with political issues as well as with matters of the present time that are rooted in the past, inciting a collective emotional state, they said.

Mobile platform applications such as Snapchat, which erases every message received in just seconds, best illustrate the paradox of oblivion and preservation and encouraging life here and now, they said.

Established by the City of Belgrade, the October Salon is organised by the Cultural Centre of Belgrade.

It ends on November 2, and visitors will also be able to attend diverse artistic side-events.

Photo Tanjug, D.Peternek