Oktobar 20.26: Artists Rally Tonight in Manjez Park
On Belgrade Liberation Day, when the October Salon traditionally opened, an artists' collective is calling a protest action in Manjez park at 8 p.m.
For years, October 20, Belgrade Liberation Day, meant the opening of the October Salon on the cultural calendar. This year the same date is being used by an informal collective called Oktobar 20.26, which is inviting artists and cultural workers to Manjez park tonight, October 20, 2026, at 8 p.m.
The action was launched by the collective with the support of the Community of Art and Culture (ZUK). The performers’ names and a detailed program have not been announced, and the available sources do not say who is organizing this year’s official October Salon or when it opens.
Why Manjez, and why this date?
The organizers say they are gathering, in the words of their statement, to “demonstrate resistance to the current cultural policy of destroying culture, of handing events over to regime loyalists and of completely eroding the right of women and men artists to work freely, and with it the erosion of contemporary art production.” They chose the date precisely because it is the day the Salon traditionally opened.
On the Salon itself, the collective says in a joint statement:
“In such an atmosphere, the October Salon becomes just one more of the occupied territories of unfreedom, a decorative mask for the seizure of public resources, censorship, pressure and repression against the field of art and culture.”
What was Oktobar75?
The collective draws on the counter-exhibition Oktobar75, launched in 1975 at the Student Cultural Center by curator Dunja Blazevic. The organizers recall that in it “women and men artists, women and men curators spoke about the social role of art and the relationship between art and self-management.” Those gathering today, they say, want to mark the antifascist tradition on Liberation Day and recall such artistic protest actions.
The message is also aimed within the profession. The organizers state:
“Today, through an action initiated by the informal collective Oktobar 20.26, with the support of the Community of Art and Culture, a voice is raised against the instrumentalization of art, and support is extended to all women and men artists, women and men workers in the field of culture, who for two years have been exposed to incredible repression and systemic pressure through the denial of the elementary right to work.”
The action is also meant as a gesture of solidarity with students, workers and all fellow citizens fighting for freedom and the right to a future.
Which words from the catalog drive the action?
The statement leans on curator Bojana Pejic and her words from the Oktobar75 exhibition catalog, which the organizers use to describe the meaning of their solidarity:
“Only when we truly understand and accept that art is a SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE ACT, just like any other social act, will we be able to say that art has finally been freed from its decorative authority.”
The same adjective returns in today’s statement, where the October Salon is described as a “decorative mask.” More than four decades separate the 1975 catalog from the 2026 statement, and the word has stayed the same.
