The exhibition includes works by twelve artists selected by two selectors. It is a traditional annual exhibition that the Gallery of Contemporary Art Niš has been organizing since 2017, with the intention of promoting cooperation, mobility and communication between artists, critics, institutions and the public. Given that each of the selectors independently and independently defines the concept of their project, the exhibition provides opportunities for dialogue and comparison of different critical discourses.
The selectors of this year’s Salon are: Biljana Grković – art historian from Kruševac and Katarina Đorđević – master of painting from Niš.
Biljana Grković focuses her author’s project on issues of current social reality, the characteristics of which are, among other things, determined by the concepts of biopower, biopolitics or necrotopics. Her selection includes works by the following artists: Biljana Đurđević, Vladimir Perić, Nataša Kokić, Nikola Radosavljević, Milica Dukić and Gabriel Glid. In the preface to the catalogue, Grković writes: “The selection of invited artists for this year’s edition of the Salon stems from the artistic practice of six artists, which is viewed within the broader context of the possibility of living a “good life” and the circumstances of the dominant forms of global capitalism and neoliberalism. The presented works are separate spaces in which, in different ways and in different media, the modes of the contemporary world are refracted and recognized – destruction, wars, ecological crisis, labor exploitation, the dominance of microdata, consumer culture, a world in which individuality, the individual who recognizes his or her identity, is disappearing. At the same time, they are also spaces that, from completely different artistic positions, immersed in the past or present, open new perspectives, create different worlds, restore hope in human dignity.”
Katarina Đorđević defined her author’s concept with questions that belong to the domain of art theory, apostorizing the characteristics of a work of art and the nature and mechanisms of its impact on the consumer or observer. In the preface to the catalogue, she writes, “The question of sensibility in the contemporary creative scene goes beyond aesthetic categorization – it is based on the induction of emotional responses that are reflected in the audience, encouraging them to engage in the basic thematic framework of the work of art, whereby its reading and experiencing is a dynamic experience that resonates on a personal and emotional level, rather than a mere passive adoption of the content offered.” Katarina Đorđević’s selection includes works by the following artists: Aleksandar Dević, Slobodan Radojković, Petar Vujošević, Larisa Ackov, Mija Arsenijević and Lazar Šošević. Their selection is based on the characteristics that connect their work to “introspection as the main guide to creation, tactility, sensuality and sensitivity with which they build their artistic worlds, inviting us to immerse ourselves in and interpret hidden messages”.
At the opening of the exhibition, the 9th Niš Salon Award for the most successful work will be presented.
A specially appointed three-member jury decides on the award.
The exhibition will run until December 14.
Biographies of the selectors
Biljana Grković graduated in Art History from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade in 1986. Since 1987, she has been working as a curator at the Art Gallery in Kruševac, which was integrated with the National Museum in 1991. She works as an editor of the exhibition program and curator of the Art Gallery collection. She earned the title of museum advisor in 2010. She is the author of several monographic and retrospective exhibitions that have presented significant artistic opuses. She has been the curator of over 200 exhibitions. She is the conceptual creator and a member of the expert team of the art project Recognition, which has been international in nature since 2007. She publishes reviews and texts in the press, professional journals, collections and exhibition catalogs. She is a member of the Museum Society of Serbia, the Serbian Committee of the International Association of Art Critics AICA and the International Council of Museums ICOM.
Katarina Đorđević graduated and received her master’s degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. She is a full professor at the Faculty of Arts in Niš and vice-dean for international cooperation. She is a member of ULUS. She has studied in Austria and Italy. She has participated in more than 400 collective exhibitions in numerous European countries and in Iran, Canada, Japan, America, Korea. She has exhibited independently in many cities in Serbia and in Turkey, Iran, Bulgaria, Sweden, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Spain, Great Britain. She is the recipient of the Charter of the University of Niš and the Faculty of Arts for her contribution to the development and promotion of these institutions, as well as numerous awards for her creative work in the country and abroad (Canada, Czech Republic, Poland).
