July, 13 thgrough 15, 2016

At the Institute for Contemporary Art, for the first time, we will present a selection of works by Selma Selman (Bihać, 1991).

Projections of videos and a selection of works can be seen in the gallery of the Institute for Contemporary Art
July 13, 14 and 15, between 2:00 and 7:00 p.m.

July 15, at 8:00 p.m., there will be the artist’s talk and guiding through the exhibition.
Moderator: Janka Vukmir

“My work is based on construction of things that are useful for the community and for individuals as well. The most important thing is that I use my identity but not to tell people that my art belongs to Roma, but my art is reality and my way of living. Growing in the ghetto and being one of the “white” girls, gives me another view of the world. As a young I was spending my childhood in the street and that makes me see myself like someone who will be capable to talk about all these things and this is when I realized that I have talent for arts.” S. Selman

Selma Selman was born in 1991 in Ružica, a Roma settlement in Bihać, Bosnia and Hercegovina. Ethnic Roma constitute the largest minority in Europe and encounter systematic discrimination, persecution, segregation in schools, and massive deportation.
At age 19, Selman left the settlement for Banja Luka, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Department of Painting at the University of Banja Luka in 2014. There, she worked, among others, with the renowned Bosnian performance artist Mladen Miljanovic, who represented Bosnia at the 55th Venice Biennial in 2013. Selman participated in Tania Bruguera’s International Summer Academy in Salzburg, ‘Arte Util’ (Useful Art) in 2013, and she was a fellow for the Roma Graduate Preparation Program at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary the following year. In 2015, Selman was the recipient of the prestigious Young Visual Artist Award ZVONO for best young artist from Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a residency in NYC.
She is currently working on her MFA at Syracuse University.

Many of Selma’s works are confessional pieces which narrate the intimate story of the artist’s life as a Roma woman, from early childhood to present.
Her artistic production functions like a palimpsest of memory and as a healing strategy. Her art is her “encyclopedia of identity” in which Selma expresses her struggle with both negative and positive stereotypes, poverty and prejudice.
The autobiographical elements make Selma’s art to function both as a backlash against injustice and as a reconsideration of the traditional modes of confession. Her art is then a form of political resistance which takes place in diversified force fields: from public space to the remote zones of our sensibility….
She confronts the viewer with daring, wit and courage to reevaluate stagnant concepts, uncritical prejudices and to rekindle their emotions.
http://www.selmaselman.com/

Photo: video-still from „Do not look into Gypsy eyes“, HD, Video,5’04”,2013, courtesy of artist