Feature: Serbia's October Salon looks at world through artistic prism of love

Artistic works of the 56th October Salon was here in Belgrade on Friday, "aiming to present the world through the prism of love", according to the curator David Elliot from Britain.

October Salon, under the theme of "Pleasure of Love", is the biggest contemporary art exhibition in Serbia, Its topics ranged from migrant crisis in Europe to environmental protection.

For the first time, October Salon is organized as a biennale, although it started as an annual event back in 1960 and grew into international contemporary art exhibition in 2004.

This time, Elliot, art gallery and museum curator and writer appointed by the City of Belgrade to curate the October Salon, selected works of 67 artists.

According to Elliot, the exhibition at Museum of Belgrade and Cultural Centre of Belgrade gathers "artists that are approaching their lives and lives of others as well as reality, culture, society and politics -- through love or the lack of it".

Audience will see works which deal with migrant's "March of Hope", together with Swedish appeal against violence and racism, and other socially engaged projects blended together through the overarching topic of love.

The exhibition brings paintings, installations, videos, sculptures, audio recordings and other art works, as well as art performances mostly made in previous two years by both emerging and affirmed artists.

One of the works that opens the exhibition is the "Fragile presence", this year's large installation by Rena Raedle from Germany and Vladan Jeremic from Serbia, which deals with the so called "March of Hope" where migrants walked from the train station in the Hungarian city of Budapest all the way to the German border.

"It depicts fragile presence of the refugee crisis, human life and the effect that this is having not only in Europe," Elliot said.

"Artists do not fall from space. They live in the real world and try to express it truthfully and their truth is artistic," Elliot explained while taking journalists for a tour of the October Salon.

"Good art is inevitably linked with broader culture which is social and political and it cannot help but exist and depend on and reflect and act within that area. Lots of artists think they work in that way but I don't think you have a choice," Elliot said.

Environmental art piece by Janet Laurence from Australia in her project "Underlying" presents an installation of a tree healed with medicinal herbs. Work provokes reaction to the current poor state of the natural environment and appeals for raised awareness.

October Salon will be open for art-lovers and tourists in the capital of Serbia until November 6. Enditem