“Having received an invitation from Branka Andjelković, the art director of the 50^th October Salon, to make a work for the needs of the mentioned exhibition, I first researched the information about the context in which this art event was to take place.

Considering that the financial resources for the realization of the Salon were reduced in 2009, due to the economic crisis, Branka Andjelković made what seemed to me a brave decision to, in such circumstances, reduce the number of participants and concentrate exclusively on the local scene and include only local artists, giving them a financial support for the production of works, unusual before. As Branka Andjelković titled the exhibition ‘Circumstance’, I wondered in what circumstances contemporary art lived in this area, what was the relationship between artists and society, i.e., how artists thought the society and how the society thought or experienced contemporary art.

I remembered that in the previous few years most people active in culture and artists had talked about the lack of cultural programmes on Serbian televisions – mosaic programmes, interviews or portraits. TV portraits of artists in shorter or longer documentary form had not been made on Serbian televisions for years. So I came up with the idea to create a series of documentary TV portraits with all the participants of the October Salon (and decided to act in the fields of PR and marketing).

My basic idea was to bring contemporary art closer to a wide audience. We are all aware of the non-presence of contemporary art in the mass media, as well as its absence from the education system, which is maybe what leads to a situation in which, at the beginning of the 21^st century, contemporary art appears distant and foreign to people.

In the form of TV portraits in which artists talk about their work in a simple way, I tried to show the viewers that their work is very much alive and close to everyday problems and topics that each of us encounters and deals with.

The name of the project ‘Individual Collectivism’ refers to an individual who relies on another, who contemplates their community, society. This individual builds relationships and develops a network of acquaintances. When an individual who is a true cultural/spiritual worker, seeker develops cognitively and spiritually and moves forward, their entire network, indirectly or directly, also develops and moves.”
Igor Grubić

Branka Anđelković. Phil Collins. Miljenko Dereta. Uroš Đurić. Biljana Đurđević. Bojan Fajfrić. Ivan Grubanov. Igor Grubić. Živko Grozdanić. Jamesdin. Žolt Kovač. Marko Lulić. Mauzoleum. Zoran Naskovski. Peđa Nešković. Vlada Nikolić. Oleg Novković. Darinka Pop-Mitić. Branimir S. Trša. Zoran Todorović. Raša Todosijević. Borut Vild. Katarina Zdjelar. Želimir Žilnik.

Journalist: Sandra Grubić
Cameraman: Josip Ivančić
Editor: Zoran Minić

© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, the October Salon Collection and the artist
Gift Contract: III-5-528/28.12.2018.
Inventory No. 211
Photo: stills from a video portraits