Solo Exhibition
SELMA SELMAN
National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina
23.07-10.09.2021.
Curator: Amila Ramović
Selma Selman’s solo exhibition open in the National Gallery of BiH
The National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina is proud to announce that the solo exhibition by Selma Selman is open for visitors from 23 July 2021. Over the course of two years, the artist has collaborated with the curator Amila Ramović in developing the shown works.
Presented in the exhibition are 64 art pieces belonging to the most recent production created for this exhibition. They represent Selman’s opus in its conceptual uniqueness while reflecting the complexity of her identity as a permanent “other” – a Roma, an immigrant, and a woman. Their strong driving power is, paradoxically, generated from the destructive energy employed in the recycling of raw iron material which secures the sustenance of her family. This energy can further be traced in the performative gesture, a manner of artistic and social engagement, which remains a characteristic of her work. Performativity here is, however, equally on the artist’s side as well as on the audience’s: her works do not possess a stable meaning, do not offer a final message, nor do they have didactic ambitions. On the contrary, Selman invites us to reflect and question, particularly the ways in which we assign value to objects, work, and people.
Along with the audio installation No Space (2019/2021), the introduction to the exhibition is Selman’s selection of three video pieces contextualizing the newly created production and indicating the continuity and conceptual uniqueness of her entire oeuvre. The video installation I Will Buy My Freedom When (2014/2018) documents her conversations with her family about the value of her life as seen through the living costs required for her upbringing. Salt Water (2015/2016) is a subtle document of Selma’s mother Naza Abdulahi’s first encounter with the sea: as a Roma woman without identity documents, she never traveled outside her country, until laws aimed at confirming the identity of war-displaced persons did not allow her to obtain a passport. Mercedes Matrix (2019) was created as a video documentation of the Mercedes car disassembly performance at the Krass festival in Hamburg, which Selma realized in collaboration with her permanent team of family and friends from the community, where the performance literally replicates the daily activity that is the main source of their personal income.
The dominant part of the exhibition consists of new works previously not shown to the public.
Among them are 54 paintings on found iron objects, selected in the process of iron collection in collaboration with the artist’s family and neigbours. On two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects, the artist intervenes with acrylic paint, drawing and text, with individual paintings functioning as fragments of a dispersive installation distributed throughout the gallery space.
The monumental multimedia work Platinum (2021) functions as a spatial installation consisting of six car underbodies, from which the artist removes catalytic converters together with her family. The converters whose primary function is the purification of car exhaust gases, paradoxically carry a noble material – platinum. In the second phase of the performance, the artist collaborates with an expert to extrapolate platinum from the converters. Finally, the platinum is melted and poured out in sculpture. The sculpture is an axe, the ephonym of Selman’s family work, exhibited in the space upon creation.
The cycle of paintings Dirt 0 (2021) was created by exposing the painting canvas to pieces of scrap iron, and resulted in four monumental surfaces on which the remains of iron dust are fixed. Selman placed the canvases in her father’s work vehicle while he collected the iron pieces. The final product, an abstract “painting” that visually resembles an elite, monumental, abstract European painting, establishes a critical contrast to the way it was created.
The exhibition works repeatedly represent Selman’s opus in its conceptual uniqueness, but they are also a reflection of the complexity of her identity as a permanent “Other” – a Roma, an immigrant, a woman. The strong performativity of her works recognizes the reflection of the specific artistic tradition she has opted for: the practices of an artist who ethically synthesizes technological and ecological tools for resolving conflicts, typical of social engagement. Ultimately, repeating the motive of collecting and recycling scrap iron, Selman invites us to question the ways in which we assign value to objects, work, and people.
The exhibition is realized in partnership with the National Gallery of BiH with the SONEMUS and AKCIJA Association, as well as various other supporters and friends. The project was supported by the European Union and the Council of Europe through its joint program “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”, Open Society Fund BiH, UNESCO, UNDP in BIH, UNHCR, IOM, Sweden, Ministry of Culture and Sports of Sarajevo Canton, University of Sarajevo, Trust for Mutual Understanding, CRVENA Association – Nona Residency, FABRIKA.
Along with the curator Amila Ramović, a team consisting of coordinator Hana Ćurak, production consultants Aida Kalender and Ališer Sijarić, Sanda Popovac, set-up designer, Bojan Hadžihalilović, author of the visual identity, photographer Damir Šagolj, as well as a number of arts professionals from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project was realized in cooperation with the team of the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina led by the director Strajo Krsmanović.
The exhibition will be open to visitors of the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina every day except Sunday, until 10 am to 8 pm, until 10 September 2021.
Selma Selman, biography
Selma Selman was born in 1991 in the Roma community village of Ružica in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After studying painting at the Fine Arts Academy in Banja Luka, she completed her MFA in Transmedia Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, New York. She has exhibited extensively across Europe and the US and her work is included in numerous international collections. She took part in the FutuRoma Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. In 2021, she was awarded the Rijksakademie residency in Amsterdam.
Amila Ramović, biography
Amila Ramović is a curator and musicologist from Sarajevo. She started her career as the program coordinator at the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art (2000) and later as the exectuive director of the Ars Aevi Foundation. She organized numerous contemporary arts exhibitions, including the solo exhibition of Braco Dimitrijević at the Venice Biennale (2009), Sing Sing retrospective at the Saint Etienne Museum (2010) as well as Sarajevo’s City Hall. She teaches at the Music and Film Academies of the University of Sarajevo. In 2019, she was awarded the Honorary Fellowship by Plymouth College of Art award.
PR Contact: hana.curak@gmail.com, 061 519 898
Production Team
National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Strajo Krsmanović
Curator
Amila Ramović
Coordinator
Hana Ćurak
Set up design
Sanda Popovac
Visual identity
Bojan Hadžihalilović
Photographer
Damir Šagolj
Set-up advisor
Ivana Udovičić
Performance participants
Hajrula Selman
Muhamed Selman
Robert Džemaili
Meho Huskić
Mato Lucić
Sead Sofić
Production coordination
Aida Adžović
Iva Vukić
Production advisors
Aida Kalender
Ališer Sijarić
Graphic design
Esad Mulabegović
PR
Hana Ćurak
Marina Krsmanović
Documentation
Faris Avdić
Luciano Perez De Savoy
Artists’ Residency
Nona Residency
Crvena
Technical set-up
Ismet Ećo
Anel Ećo
Alija Korjenić
Mirza Herović
Emir Mezit
Adnan Pertef
Muhamed Čakar
Zijad Kršo
Dušan Šuman
Haris Vojniković
3D Design
Armin Ćosić
The exhibition team would like to thank:
Rifat Škrijelj
Tamara Karača Beljak
Mirza Dautbašić
Siniša Šešum
Irfan Brković
Bojan Stojčić
Tatjana Romanić
Dragan Opančić
Lala Raščić
Dobrila Govedarica
Dženana Trbić
Elma Klisura Zilić
Filip Radunović
Ibrahim Masleša
Alem Carina
Anđela Čulina
Ermin Mujezinović
Mirza Mutevelić
Partners:
SONEMUS
AKCIJA
The exhibition was supported by:
Council of Europe
EU Delegation in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Open Society Fund Bosnia and Herzegovina
Trust for Mutual Understanding
UNESCO
UNHCR
UNDP in BIH
IOM
Sweden
Ministry of Culture and Sports – Canton of Sarajevo
Canton of Sarajevo
Centar Municipality
Stari Grad Municipality
University of Sarajevo
CRVENA Association for Culture and Arts
Nona Residency
Fabrika