Cultural Centre of Belgrade Issues Statement Regarding Petrit Halilaj’s Withdrawal from 58th October Salon – Belgrade Biennale

//EN

The Cultural Centre of Belgrade (KCB), as the organizer of the 58th October Salon – Belgrade Biennale expresses, once again, its regrets about the decision of artist Petrit Halilaj to withdraw his work from the exhibition.

The Cultural Centre of Belgrade takes the responsibility when it comes to the error in the English version of the October Salon website, where only the country of origin of the mentioned artist was omitted. At the same time, the Serbian version of the same website listed the places of birth and current places of residence and work for each artist.  

KCB had employed the same practice before, with numerous exhibitions and projects, regardless of the countries of origin of the participating artists, sometimes coming from Kosovo. In that way, we were addressing the artworks and authors, and not their geographical affiliations.

After the apology sent by KCB to the artist, all further attempts to find a solution to overcome the problem he pointed out failed. Petrit Halilaj never replied to any attempt or apology from KCB. We learned of his decision to withdraw from the exhibition from Curators Ilaria Marotta and Andrea Baccin, and saw the full explanation in his open letter, published on Artnet.  

We would be more than happy to have the opportunity to open a discussion and continue the dialogue on this topic, although it goes beyond the sphere of culture and art.

CCB program team

//SR

Kulturni centar Beograda (KCB), kao organizator 58. Oktobarskog salona – Beogradskog bijenala, izražava još jednom žaljenje zbog odluke umetnika Petrita Halilaja da svoj rad povuče sa izložbe. 

Kulturni centar Beograda preuzima na sebe odgovornost kada je reč o grešci koja se pojavila na engleskoj verziji sajta Oktobarskog salona na kojoj je samo kod pomenutog umetnika bila izostavljena zemlja porekla. Istovremeno, na srpskoj verziji istog sajta kod svakog umetnika bilo je naznačeno mesto rođenja i mesto u kome umetnici trenutno žive i rade.  

Na ovaj način KCB je postupao i u organizaciji ranijih brojnih izložbi i projekta bez obzira na zemlje porekla umetnika-izlagača, među kojima su nekada bili uključeni i umetnici sa Kosova. Na taj način smo se odnosili prema umetničkom delu i autoru, a ne prema njihovoj geografskoj pripadnosti. 

Nakon izvinjenja koje je KCB uputio umetniku, svaki dalji pokušaj da se pronađe rešenje za prevazilaženje problema koji je on istakao nije uspeo. Na sve pokušaje i izvinjenje KCB-a nikada nismo dobili odgovor od Petrita Halilaja. Za njegovu odluku da se povuče sa izložbe saznali smo od kustosa Salona, Ilarije Marote i Andree Baćina, a potpuno obrazloženje videli smo u otvorenom pismu koje je obajvio na Artnetu.  

Bili bismo više nego srećni da se u budućnosti ukaže prilika da otvorimo diskusiju  i nastavimo dijalog na ovu temu, koja prevazilazi područje kulture i umetnosti.

Programski tim KCB

Read the statement of the curators Ilaria Marotta and Andrea Baccin in CURA Magazine: https://curamagazine.com/some-thoughts-after-petrits-withdraw-from-the-58th-october-salon-belgrade-biennale/