This catalogue is dedicated to my mother.

I am a
thieving Gypsy,
dumb Bosnian,
and killer Muslim.
Living. In. America.

Jasmina Tumbas
Selma Selmans oeuvre demonstrates the artists struggle with questions of
statelessness, multi-generational trauma, and survival. Land and body become sites of
emancipation and persecution, which she explores in video-works, sound sculptures,
paintings, and performance art. Selman complicates the notion of what it means to
maintain self-sovereignty as a foreigner in her land of origin and her current home, the
United States. Using her own body as the primary mode of political intervention, her work
exposes the tensions that arise when representing, and at the same time embodying, this
Othered identity. The root of these tensions lies in the fact that the artist reproduces and
simultaneously critiques many of the racial stereotypes entrenched in the portrayals of
the largest ethnic minority in Europe in the history of art, film, and the media. Ultimately,
Selmans search for political resistance situates this confrontation within the gendered
and racialized presumptions about citizenship, belonging, and identity.
In one pivotal work by Selman, we see the paradigms of exclusion and violence
that have segregated Roma and non-white Europeans for centuries, which the artist
outlined by stating the following: I am Gypsy = thief; I am Bosnian = dumb; I am
Muslim = killer; and P.S I live in America. Ongoing project, 2015. Standing at the corner
of a red brick wall, the artist looks straight into the camera. Her long, dark hair framing
her crossed arms, her eyes gaze right back at us, with a stern look. Selman here embodies
what Rafaela Eulberg has argued is the dual position of a Roma and woman, both falling
under the category of foreign. She states: In the same way that gypsy was labeled as
foreign, the woman was perceived as foreign, (an) unsettling presence in the governing
patriarchal social order.i Selman is currently pursuing an MFA in the United States, but
the artist was born and grew up in a Roma settlement called Ruzica (Rose) in Bosnia
Herzogovina, in a family that has several members without Bosnian citizenship. As such,
both woman and other, as well as Muslim and actual foreigner in the United States,
Europe, and even Bosnia, Selman occupies the position of an unwanted and exotic subject.
Selmans difficult position as a hated and desired woman, and ethnic other, evokes
the most infamous stereotypical depiction of Roma women by the French novelist Prosper
Mrime, who already in 1845 mythologized the figure of the archetypal Roma woman
in Carmen as the following: She was an unusual, but at the same time rambunctious
beauty Her eyes especially had a lustful and at the same time wild expression, like I
had never encountered in a human being before. A gypsy eye is a wolfs eye, goes the

Spanish proverb, which seems to be an accurate observation.ii The idea of the seductive
and threatening Gypsy woman also became the prominent representation of Roma
women in the history or art, and even more so in the history of what some may refer to as
kitsch. This fictitious female Roma character premiered in Bizets opera Carmen, first
performed in 1875 in Paris, and presented Carmen as a prostitute or femme fatale that
seduces men into their ruin.
Picking up on the very stereotype of the haunting, animalistic, and dangerous
eyes of Carmen, Selman takes agency over this myth in her video performance, Do Not
Look Into Gypsy Eyes (2013). As the artist looks directly into the camera, she addressed
the viewer, stating:
If I look into your eyes anything can happen to you...I can put a spell
on you Do not look into my gypsy eyes. I could do a miracleI can
seduce you. You can fall in love with me... You can become a wanderer. A
wanderer foreverIf you look me into my eyes I can eat you. I can put a
spell on you. All kinds of things can happen to youYou can disappear
You can go crazy You can fly...You can lose your soul. If you look me
into my eyes. And you look at me. You look at me with a meaningful
look. and you can wander forever. ..
In her monologue to an unknown viewer, Selman points to the treasured and
feared aspect of this supposedly nomadic group of wanderers: her eyes, which threaten
to enslave the viewer with the gift or damnation of becoming a wanderer. This emphasis
on wandering the world is a deliberate one for Selman, and references the conflation of
Roma culture with a bohemian lifestyle, a trend in art that reached its peak in the 19th
century. Then, the gypsy nomad was appropriated to serve the idea of the travelling
artist who chooses to live in the margins of industrial society. Bohemians, according
to art historian Marilyn Brown, were thought to be the lost link with the ancient and
hermetic wisdom of the East.iii Conflating them with the East was one way to critique
the Western industrial development, considering the primitive and inexplicable natural
force that determined their wandering instinct as superior to and stronger than modern
industrial progress.ivAs such, bohemians in the nineteenth century were seen as agents
of resistance, romanticized as artists and free spirits living outside of normative social
confines.
The use of Roma for social commentary and political critique lies at the heart of
Western art, reaching even within this century. In 2011, the curators for the Roma Pavilion
at the Venice Biennial made an asserted effort to raise awareness of Roma as a people
and their political struggles, ironically and provocatively inserting the nation-less Roma
pavilion in an art exhibition conceptually categorized by nations. However, the 2011 3-D
design for the Roma pavilion materialized an original visual conception of Constants

The Gypsy Camp (1956-1958). This non-Roma artist, also one of the founders of the
Dutch CoBrA movement, designed the gypsy camp based on thinking about the Roma
peoples way of life as exemplary for the majority society.vAs such, while the pavilion
sought to highlight contemporary Roma art, the individual Roma artists in the Venice
Biennial found themselves, and were confined to, a Roma camp conceived by a nonRoma artists fantasy of liberation for modern society.
This type of appropriation is remarkably volatile when we consider the context
of former Yugoslavia, where films by directors like Emir Kusturica have successfully
cultivated a conflation of the Balkans and Roma in the late 20th Century, displaying classic
non-Roma fantasies and stereotypes, such as the myth of poverty as happiness, and
applying them to the general Balkan sensibility toward life.vi Kusturicas films celebrate
the primitive life uncorrupted by Western rational and elitist culture, specifically by
showcasing [Romas] talents as singers and dancers and merging them with the Balkans
as a geo-political space of resistance to the West.vii Hence, these films fall squarely within
the tradition of appropriating Roma for the fostering of resistance to the dominance of
Western cultural values of political power and at the same time perpetuating clichs
about Roma culture. Moreover, Roma in former Yugoslavia are the upmost despised and
segregated minority, living at the margins of society while being culturally appropriated
and continually imprisoned, criminalized, and deported.
Is it any wonder then that in one of her performance works, Selman incessantly
and repeatedly screams, You have no Idea!, at her viewers? Entering the gallery space,
the artist simply stands before the art crowd, restating this one basic statement about
the insurmountable difference between those in the know and those who cannot, for
whatever reason, empathize with the artists experience of discrimination, harassment,
struggle, and burden of coming of age within a population that has been traumatized
and brutalized for centuries. And yet, those in the know, do know. When in 2015 I
invited the artist to perform this work at Dreamland in Buffalo, US, a gallery run by
queer artists with multiple ethnic backgrounds which attracts a very diverse population
of art goers, the room was filled with empathy, tears, and community. Especially in the
US, where recent uprisings in reaction to the police killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael
Brown, Tanisha Anderson, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner and many others, have raised the
stakes for what it means to live in constant fear and racial, economic, and social injustice.
This performance by Selman evoked a social and emotional bond through trauma, which
art historian Kristine Stiles has argued can be shared, even if it comes from different life
experiences:
I believe that suffering itself unites inside/outside in a common field
of shared domains of knowledge that the experience of suffering is literally

visible in the behaviors and representations of those who have experienced

trauma and pain, not because anyone can know precisely an others pain, but

because living is made easier by being connected to those who know.viii

Selmans work creates a space in which empathy is called upon, but also troubled
and difficult to endure or experience. In her most recent, and perhaps most violent
performance, Composition: Bori, Nevjesta, Bride, the artist pushed a rusty barbed wire
into her hips for approximately 50 minutes. Standing in the corner with her back to the
audience and her face concealed by her hair and the walls surrounding her, Selmans
breathing into a microphone - her screams, her pain - became the soundscape of terror in
the room. For many visitors, this profound moment of witnessing another humans pain
was too much; for others, it activated their own experience of suffering. And for many of
us, this work spoke to the tragedy of borders that cost so many peoples lives, and that
continue to scar and violate those who do not fit within the hegemonic powers of nations,
and who are criminalized because of their lack of citizenship, their ethnic or religious
backgrounds, and their gender.
But for Selman, this work took an additional and very personal dimension: the
artists relationship to her mothers past. As the artists statement about the work reveals,
Selmans mother was married off at an early age, and remained segregated in the small
Roma community of Ruzica. Selmans decision to hide her face in the corner while
inflicting such gruesome pain on her own body metaphorically, and metonymically,
connected to her mothers existence, which was, according to Selman, made insignificant
and invisible to the outside world. The barbed wire, therefore, not only connotes the
borders imposed by nations and states, but also by gendered hierarchies and traditions,
which reduce womens bodies to landscapes of power struggles and violence.
In an earlier performance from 2013, Selman looked closely at the question of
gender and criminalization. Roma hold the dubious and unwanted distinction of being
Europes most loathed people, according film critic John Cunningham.ix To be sure,
with the opening of the borders in the EU and since the break-up of socialist Yugoslavia,
ethnic Roma from Eastern and Central Europe have become feared and associated with
crime and violence. For her 2013 performance, Sister, Be Aware of Criminals, Selman
walked into the streets of Banja Luka. Dressed in clothing that is traditionally associated
with Roma women, the artist walked through the city for 45 minutes, screaming: Sisters,
be aware of criminals! In my interview with Selman, the artist stated that she wanted
to invert the position of criminalized Roma women, and instead speak to her sisters,
other Roma women who are usually neither addressed, cared for, or protected from the
many dangers that poverty, homelessness, and discrimination bring.x In one still from
the performance, we can see that capitalism has arrived in what used to be a post-socialist
and war-ridden state: MCDonalds caf, people shopping, business as usual in the big
city. The invisibility and mutability of Roma women, however, is disrupted by the young
artist, who while performing and being the stereotypical Roma woman gives a voice, as
she has noted, to her own people.xi For Selman, crying out to her sisters is about her
prayers. In her artist statement about this work she adds: This is a mantra for me.xii

Although Selman is currently living in the United States and exhibits her work
globally, the artist grew up in what she calls the ghetto of Bosnia. She left home to earn
her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Banja Luka Universitys Department of Painting in 2014,
where she worked with the renowned Bosnian performance artist Mladen Miljanovic,
who represented Bosnia at the 55th Venice Biennial in 2013. But during the summers, the
artist would return home and help the family with their business of collecting and selling
old iron, aluminum, and brass, and began using these materials to create paintings and
installations. She stated: My family collects these types of metal and this is how we
survive. I wanted to make all the paintings I painted monumental.xiii
During her studies in Banja Luka, Selman also began to emphasize the
monumentality of her own body, creating the types of actions that would raise the
political stakes of her art. So to return to Sister, Be Aware of Criminals once more, it
could be said that the monumentality of her own body and voice penetrating the city
scape of Banja Luka spoke and speaks to the criminality of not only other people, but
the state itself: for Roma live in abject poverty in the Balkans and rely on collecting the
scraps of commodities to survive, while the governments and corporations continue to
perpetrate the greatest financial crimes and disasters. I would argue that the ambiguity
of blame here is what it particularly challenging and profound in this work: for Selman
herself, as Roma, is already always criminal; the corporations that infiltrate communities
are criminal; and the absence of the voice and attention to Roma women has led to some
of the greatest humanitarian crises in the region. That the artists body contains this very
struggle becomes even more evident in the artists stated motivation behind her actions:
I want to escape from bad things but not hide who I am.xiv
Selmans dual position of being both insider and outsider within her own Roma
community and the larger art world informs some of the artists most powerful and
provocative works. In MERCEDES 310 (2014), we see the artist posing like a super model
Mercedes, a car which Selman says she respects. Inside the car, she stated, one can
always find some rusty iron as my family earns a living through collecting it. I want
to proudly show you the contrast between the two realities because I respect this car
and thats why Im dressed up.xv The artist here is neither condoning nor resisting the
aesthetization of corporate powers and her own precarious condition as a Roma woman.
Instead, she seduces her viewers with an image akin to fashion shoots, a world which
frequently appropriates Roma culture. With her dirty white gloves and her elegant white
dress, her long black hair and her open mouth, her gaze mocks the viewers empathy for
her plight at the same time as it expresses her own position of power. For unlike the likes
of Kate Moss who has served as models for Gypsy fashion,xvi Selman lives the reality
of precarity, while as an artist she also seeks to represent it not as a political critique of
the West, but as a statement about her emancipatory position as a Roma woman and
international artist.
Selman pushes the question of Roma and their position within this geographically

and ideologically shifting map of European identity and raises the question of what it
means to be non-white and without a nation in Europe. In Roma performing the Flag
(2013), she forces us to consider how we can talk about art and social change in a context
that deals with human beings who are deprived of basic human rights, and who do not
have a sovereign nation to protect them as citizens. In this performance, Selman tirelessly
tries to perform the flag of the Roma nation, which as the artist notes, does not have a
state:
Roma dont have our own state, but we have the whole world. The Roma flag
is horizontal and composed of blue on the upper part, green in lower part, and in the
middle there is the red wheel. Selma continues: The blue color signifies the sky and its
our blanket. The Green is the color of the earth and its a sign that we exist all around the
world. The red wheel represents our movement and fight.I wanted to make our flag
alive.xvii
Compellingly, we see the artist with her eyes closed in one of the stills from
her performance. The artist is not allowing us to gaze inside them, denying us entry
to this other world. Instead, Selman displays her struggle to make the flag alive. She
repeatedly fails to make the cartwheel, signifying how the bodies of Roma are not only in
danger because of massive deportations and discrimination, but because of the erasure
of their history; the appropriation of their live style; and the mobilization of their plight
for political critique. The artist shows us her investment in resistance here: not resistance
against Western capitalism, but the very struggle to reach and maintain self-sovereignty.
Not only does the artist fail to perform the flag, but the flag itself is meaningless
without the living body of the artist, for it neither represents a nation nor a geographical
space. Instead, it stands for the struggle of a minority to survive and thrive over multiple
centuries, here embodied in the artists deliberate failure to perform for us, and to perform
on behalf of Roma. As such, her dual position is always present. Or to repeat Selman
again: I want to escape from bad things but not hide who I am.

Through

my

work

hope

to

break

down

prejudice against Roma, as my art does not

focus only on Roma, but on all human beings.
Selma Selman

NOTES (Endnotes)
Rafaela Eulberg, The Image of the Female Gypsy As a Potential of Stereotypes Notes on the Interrelation of Gender and Ethnicity, in Lith Bahlmann and Matthias Reichelt, eds., Reconsidering Roma. Aspects of
Roma and Sinti Life in Contemporary Art (Goettingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2011), 64-65.

Prosper Mrime, Carmen (1845), 1998 version published by Goldmann (Munich), page 26, quoted in Eulberg, 66-68.

ii

Marilyn R. Brown, Gypsies and Other Bohemians: The Myth of the Artist in Nineteenth-Century France (Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1985), 22.
iii

iv
Ibid. vMaria Hlavajova, Exhibition Architecture (After Constants Design for a Gypsy Camp), on Call the
Witness, Roma Pavilion, http://www.callthewitness.net/Testimonies/ExhibitionArchitecture.
vi

Caterina Pasqualino, The Gypsies, Poor but Happy, in Third Text 22, no. 3 (2008): 345.
Ibid.

vii

Kristine Stiles, INSIDE/OUTSIDE: Balancing Between a Dusthole and Eternity. In Zdenka Badovinac,
ed., The Body and the East: From the 1960s to the Present. Cambridge (Massachusetts and London: MIT Press,
1998), 20.
viii

ix

John Cunningham, Hungarian Cinema (London and New York: Wallflower, 2004), 180.

Selma Selman in conversation with the author, April 28, 2015.

xi

Ibid.

xii

Selman, Sister Be Aware of Criminals: http://www.selmaselman.com/sister-be-aware.html.

xiii

Selma Selman, Paintings on Metal (Neoironism): http://www.selmaselman.com/paintings-on-metal.html.

xiv

Selma Selman in conversation with the author, April 28, 2015.

xv

Selma Selman, Mercedes 310. http://www.selmaselman.com/mercedes310.html.

Kate Mosss photo shoot was published in the #61 September V magazine issue, V #61 September 2009:
Kate and the Gypsies, posing with fake Gypsy caravans and in expensive designer clothes that reference the
bohemian fashion of the late 19th century. See http://www.fashionising.com/pictures/p--V-61-September2009-Kate-and-the-Gypsies-Kate-Moss-3578-52121.html.
xvi

xvii

Selman, Roma Performing the Flag. http://www.selmaselman.com/roma-performing.html

Jasmina Tumbas
La Selma-Selmaki oeuvra(buchi) sikavel la artistaka maripasa la pushimasa ke
naj la them, multi-gineracijaki trauma thaj ashipe zhuvdo. Them thaj trupo avena thana
emancipacijake thaj persekucija save voj rodel ande videjicka buchja, hangoske skulpturi, sliki thaj performanciake arta. Selman ansuchil i ideja kathar so hachjarel te ingarel
lako personaliteto sar strejina ando lako them kaj bijandili thaj andi Amerika, o them kaj
voj beshel akana. Voj kerel hazna kathar lako personalno trupo sar laki manijera te kerel
politikalno intervencija, lake buchi nangjarel te tangimata kaj anklen kana voj reprezentil thaj pe jekhfjalo data lel pe peste kado Avruno identiteto. I vuna kadale tangimata
aven kathar o rejaliteto ke i artista kerel maj ekh data thaj pe jekhfjalo data vakisarel bute
kathar le rasicka stereotipura kaj sikadjon ande hachjarimata kathar le maj bare etnikicko
minoriteto andi Europa ande historija artaki, filmaki thaj la medijaki. Ande vurma, le Selmako rodipe vash politikalno resistancija chuvel kadi konfrontacija mashkar le rasisticka
hachjarimata anda nacjonaliteto, themnipe thaj identiteto.
Andi jekh maj importantno buchi la Selmaki, dikhas le egzemplura kathar
shudipe avri thaj agrecija kaj hulade le Romen thaj le Bi-Parne Europanurjan desar kenturi kaj Selman sikadjas kana phendjas le maj-pashe lava/svatura: Me sim Romni =
chorni: Me sim Bosnaki = lalori: Me sim Muslimanka = mudaritorka; thaj pala-skrijime,
beshav ande Amerika. Projekto kaj zhal anglal, 2015. Voj ashel pe kolco/shkeja lole
staklake zidostar, i artista dikhel vorta andi kamera. Lake lundzhi kale bal ankolil lake
trushulime vasa, lake jakha dikhen palpale amende zurales. Kathe, Selman sikavel o kipo
kaj i Rafaela Eulberg phenel ke si o do-facako kipo kathar i Romni thaj i zhuvli, le don
kaj si hachjarde te avel i strejina. Voj (Eulberg) phenel ke: Andi jekhfjalo manijera
ke ciganka dikhjolas sar strejino i zhuvli thaj-vi dikhjolas sar strejino, ekh darajimaski
persona ande gubernickonja patrijarkickonja socialno struktura. Selman akana sikjol te
dubisarel lako MFA andi Amerika, numa i artista bijandili thaj barili ande Romani mahala kaj bushol Ruzika andi Bosnia-Hercegovina ande familija savestar but membria naj len
Bosnako nacjonaliteto. Te avel kasavi, li duj, zhuvli thaj avruni, thj-vi te avel Muslimanka
thaj chachuni strejina andi Amarika, andi Europa thaj-vi feri andi Bosnia-Hercegovina,
Selman arakhel-pe sar egzotikicko thaj bi-kamli persona.
La Selmanaki phari pozitcija sar voricime thaj kamli zhuvli, thaj etnikicko avruni,
akharel kaj aminte le maj bi-shukare stereotipikalno kipo kathar i Romni kathar le Francuzicko novelista Prosper Mrime kaj ando 1845 sa gata kerdjas o mitologija kathar i

Romni ando lesko protagonista Carmen sar ande le maj-pashe: Voj sas diferentno numa
ka jekhfjalo data razbojniko shukarni...lake jakha sas len kuchivali thaj pe jekhfjalo data
selvatiko eksprecija kasavo sar chi dikhlem andi aver dzheni desar maj anglal. I Romani
jakh si ruveski jakh, phenel Shpanjolicko phenipe/proverba kadi kaj hachjardjol te avel
chuchuni observacija. O koncepto kathar i kuchivali thaj darajimaski ciganka sas te
avel i maj prominentno representacija kathar i Romni ande historija artake thaj shimaj
ande sos vuni zhene akharen kitsch. Kadi xoxamni persona anklisti andi opera Carmen
kathar o Bizet kaj sas prezentime pe angluni data ando Paridzji. Kadi prezentisardjas leski protagonista Carmen sar kurva vaj shukar martjaki zhuvli kaj xal le gadzhesko shero.
Selman kerdjas hazna kathar kado stereotipo kathar le darajimaske, zhivinicka
thaj strazhni jakha la Carmenake, Selman kerel hazna kathar kadi mitologija andi lako
videjo-performancija Na Dikh ande Romane Jakha (2013) Kana i artista dikhel vorta
andi kamera, voj vakjarel kaj audijencija, phenel:
Te dikhes ande mure jakha chi zhanes so shaj pasil-pe tusa...shaj chuvav farmako pe tute...Na dikh ande mure Romane jakha...Shaj keravas miraklo/chuda...
Shaj dav tut po lazhav...Shaj peres ando kamipe mansa...Shaj te aves phiritori...sajek te avel phiritori...Te dikhes ande mure jakha shaj xav tut. Shaj chuvav farmako
pe tute. Bute fjalura trejabi/sheja shaj pasil-pe tusa. Shaj xasavos. Shaj diljavos.
Shaj hurjas. Shaj xasares tiro odji/shpirto te dikhes man ande jakha.Thaj dikhes
pe mande. Thaj dikhes pe mande phare jakhensa...Thaj shaj phires svagdar/zauvek.
Ando lako monologo kaj bi-zhangle audijencija, Selman akharel atencija kaj o manginalo
thaj darano stereotipo kathar kadale mitologikickone phirimasko grupo: lake jakha
kaj daravel te keren robi anda le dikhitoria le darosa vaj o arman te aven phiritoria.
Kado darajipe le phirimasko ande lunja sas kerdo anumi pa Selman thaj i referencija kaj o
kethanipe la Romanja kulturako thaj le bohemicko manijera te trajil, ekh stilo ande arta kaj
anklisto ka o shero andi 19to kentura. Ando kado vakto, o Romano phiritori sas chordino te sikavel o koncepto kathar o phirimasko artista kon alorsarel te trajil pe marzini le
socijetoske. Bohemjanura, pala artako historiana, Marilyn Brown, sas gindime te aven le
xasardi veza kaj o phurikano thaj o hermetikicko Estikano zhanglipe. Te kerel kethane
te Bohemjanura le Estikanosa sas jekh manijera te kerel kritiko/vakipe kathar le Vestikano Industrijalno barjaripe, kana gindisavajlo ke le primitivni thaj bi-hachjarimaske
zora kaj kerdine len te phiren ande lumja sas maj lashe kathar thaj maj zurale kathar
moderno industrijalno progreso. Pala kodja bohemjanura andi 19to kentura dikhjones
vitijazura kathar rezistancija, romantikicka artistura thaj sloboni shpirtura kaj trajinas
avrjal le normalnone socijalno phandipe.
I hazna le Romengi te aven o fundo vash socijalno vorbimos/vakjaripe thaj politikalno
kritiko si ka o fundo kathar Vestinako art kaj aresel zhi-ka o 21to kentura. Ando 2011, le

kuratoria kathar o Romani Pavilijono ka le Vinicicko Do-Bershengo zumadine te vazden

hachjarimos kathar le Roma sar ekh narodo thaj lenge politikalni ljufti, prasales von chudine le bi-themeske Roma ando mashkar kathar ekh kidipe kathar artake eksibiciji kaj
reprezentinas le naciji la lumjake. Numa ando 2011 3D desinjo pala o Romano pavilijono
kerdjilo originalno vizuallno koncepcija kathar Constantesko o Romano taboro/kampo
(1956-1958). Kado Non-Romano artisto, kon sas thaj-vi jekh anda le fundatoria kathar o
Holandicko CoBrA Mishkipe, desinisardjas o Romano Taboro fundime pe o kipo kathar
o Romani trajo sas lasho egzemplo vash o madzhoriteticko socijeteto. Pala kodja, o pavilijono kamelas te sikavel Romani art, le individualni Romane artistura ando Vinicicko
Pavilijono arakhle-pe phangle kaj o Romano taboro kaj sas o produkto kathar i fantasija
kathar ekh Non-Romano artisto kaj dikhlas le Romen sar o slobozhimos vash moderno
socijeteto.

Kulturalno choripe kadalestar si pharujimasko kana gindis-ame anda i phurikani
Jugoslavija kaj filmura kathar direktciia sar Emil Kosturica kerdine kipo kathar le Romen
thaj o Balkano andi vurma le 20to kenturaki kadale kaj sikavel Non-Romane fantasiji
thaj stereotipura sar i mitologija ke le Roma si vesoli/baxtale ando pengo choripe, thaj
prezentisardjas kadi mitologija kaj o gineralno Balkanicko hachjartipe kaj o trajo te avel
ekh geo-politikalno spacija kathar resistancija karing o Vesto. Pala kodja, kakale filmura
chuven-pe ande tradicija te chorel i Romani kultura te kerel rezistancija kaj o kulturalno
dominacija kathar o Vestikano kulturalni tradiciji thaj politikalni zor thaj kaj jekhfjalo
data, sikaven stereotipura kathar i Romani kultura. Ando chachipe, le Roma andi phurikani Jugoslavija si o maj hutuime thaj shudino minoriteto kaj trajin pe le marzini le socijetetoske kana lenge kultura si chordini le Non-Romensa thaj le Roma si sajek phandade,
kriminalisarde thaj tradine pe strazha.

Pala kodja ame shaj hachjaras pe soste Selman ande jekh anda lake performancjake buchja. Selman cipil data-datatar kaj laki audijencija: Naj tut ideja. Kana voj anklel
ande galerijaki spacija, i artista ashel anglal i audiencija thaj phenel kado vorbimos/svato
anda i diferencija mashkar von kaj zhanen thaj von kaj nashtik zhanen pala varesavo
razono hachjaren le artisticka eksperijenciji kathar diskriminacija, darajipe, ljufta, thaj o
pharipe te barjol andi populacija kaj sas darade thaj dine choro trajo bute kenturijandar.
Numa Von kaj zhanen zhanen po chachipe. Kana, ando 2015, pushlem kadala artistatar te performil kadi buchi kaj Dreamland ando Buffalo, ekh galerija porenchime pa
homoseksualicka artistura kaj avile kathar bute diferentni polekri thaj, kaj cirdel bute diferentni populacija zhenendar kaj kamen art i soba sas pherdi hachjaripatar, asvinja thaj
komuniteto. Especijalnones ando Amerika kaj i populacija zhanel so si te trajin ando dar
kathar rasijalno, socijalno thaj ikonomikicko bi-chachimata maj palal kathar le mudarinata kathar Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tanisha Anderson, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner,
thaj maj but avre zhene. Kadi performancija pa Selman vazdas socijalno thaj emociako
kethanipe mashkar anda huladi trauma, savo kaj shaj xulade, phenel artaki Historijana
Kristine Stiles, nitala avel kathar diferentno trajoski eksperiencija. Phenel:


Me pachjav...ke dukh/kino malavel andre thaj avrjal i niva kathar mutualno
zhanglipe ...ke i eksperiencija kathar o kino si viziblo ande lende kaj sas len i eksperiencija la traumatar thaj le kinostar, na ke jekh zheno shaj zhanel i eksperiencija kathar avre
zhenosko numa o trajo avel maj feder kana von kaj xale dukh si pasha von kaj zhanen.
I Buchi la Selmanako kerel spacija kaj akharel o hachjaripe numa pe jekhfjalo data si
phari te hachjarel. Andi laki maj pashluni thaj maj zurali performancika Composition
Bori, Nevjesta Bride i artista shpidas ruzhinime zhico ande lake kichura vash maj but maj
xansi panzhvardesh minuci. Voj ashelas ando sharko, laki zea karing i audiencija, lako
muj garado lake balensa thaj ankolime le zidurensa thaj phurdelas ando mikrofono. La
Selmanako phurdipe ando mikrofono, lake cipimata dukhatar kerdjas la hangoski spacija andi soba. Bute vizitorijenge, kado momento avreski dukh sas preja but, pala avrende,
sikadjas penge momentura dukhatar. Thaj pala bute amendar, kadi buchi vakjardas anda
le granici kaj len kasavo but zheneske trajura, thaj len-pe te shinel thaj te silovin kodolen
amendar kaj chi maladjon ande le hegemonikicka zora le naciange thaj si kriminisarde ke
naj len nacionaliteto, lenge etnikicki vaj religjaki polekri vaj lengi dzhendra.
Numa pala Selman, kadi buchi ljas-pe peste adicionalno thaj personalno dimencija, la
artistaki relacija kaj lake dako nakhlipe. Sar lako vorbimos/svato anda i buchi sikavel,
la Selmanaki dej sas moritime/surime kana voj sas preja terni thaj ashili huladi ando
cino Romano komuniteto kaj busholas Ruzica. La Selmanaki desizija te garavel lako muj
ando sharko kana voj dukhavelas laki persona simbolikalnones chuvdas la kaj laka daki
egzistencija sar i Selman phendjas sas cinjardi thaj bi-vidljivo kaj maj bari lumja, O
zhico skucome na feri sikavel le granici kaj keren le naciji numa thaj-vi pa dzhenderime
gubernura thaj tradiciji kaj cinjarel zhuvljange trupura kaj panorami kathar zorake ljufti
thaj agrecija.
Andi maj angluni performancija ando 2013, Selman dikhl;as pashunes kaj dzhendra thaj
kriminalizacija. Le Roma si le len i bi-mangli pozicija te aven le maj hutuime manush
andi Europa. Sar phenel o filmicko kritiko John Cunningham, chachimaste, desar o pharajipe la Socijalistickonja Jugoslavako thaj o phuteripe kathar le granici pa i Europicko Unija le etnikicka Roma kathar o Kentralno thaj Estikano Europa daradjile thaj hachjarde
te aven kriminalura kaj keren agrecija. Andi laki 2013 performancija, Sister, Be Aware of
Criminals Phejo, Arakh Tut Kathar le Kriminalura, Selman phirdjas ande le ulici ando
Banja Luka. Voj phiravelas tradicionali Romane gada thaj pala 45 minuci voj phirelas
ando foro thaj cipilas Phenjale, Arakhen Tumen Kathar le Kriminalura! Ando muro intervu lasa, Selman i artista phendjas ke voj kamlas te amboldel i pozicija le kriminalisarde
Romnjange thaj te vakjarel lake phenjensa le avre Romnja kaj musaj te trajin bi atencijako, bi-samako, vaj protekcijako ando muj kathar le but strazhni kaj ankolin len sar i dar
te peren ando choripe, bi-kheripasa thaj diskriminacija. Andi performancija, shaj dikhas
ke o kapitalizmo areslo ando them kaj sas na domult pala-Socijalisticko thaj maripasko
them: Dikhas kothe McDonalds Caf, le balamura pherde zhene, komercijo zhuvdo thaj

zuralo. Le vidljivipe thaj parudzhipe le Romnjange pharudjilo pa i terni artista kana voj
performil sar i stereotipime Romni del glaso, sar voj phendjas, ka lake Romane manusha. Vash i Selman, o cipimos le Romenge azbal lake rugimata. Ande lake artistako
vorbimos voj phenel: Kadi si muri mantra.
Nitala Selman beshel akana ande Amerika thaj sikavela laki buchi andi antrego lumja,
voj barili ando sos voj akharel o ghettola Bosnjako. Voj meklas lako vatrako kher te dubisarel lako Bachelauriato kathar o Universiteto kathar Banja Luka, Departamento Slikako ando 2014 kaj voj kerelas buchi le vestime performancijakone artistesa Mladen Miljakovic kaj reprezentisardjas i Bosnia kaj le Vinicicko Do-Bershengo ando 2013. Numa ande
le milaske vrjama i artista amboldjas khere te azhutil laki familija andi lengi familijako
komersijo, o kidipe thaj bikhinipe kathar shudino mitalo, phurikani sastri, alumino thaj
galbono-harkoma, thaj voj kezdisardjas/ljas-pe te kerel hazna kathar kadale miterialura
te kerel sliki thaj instalaciji. Voj phendjas: Muri familija kidel kadale fjalura mitalura
thaj pala lende, ame trajis. Kamlem te kerav sa kadale sliki monumentalni.

Kana voj sikjolas andi Banja Luka, voj kezdisardjas/ljas-pe te kerel emfasiso pe
lako personalno trupo, te kerel le fjalura akciji kaj kerelas lr politikalno importancija kathar laki art. Te zhas palpale kaj Sister, Beware of Criminals shaj phendjol ke o monumentaliteto kathar lako personalno trupo thaj lako glaso kana cipisajlo ando mashkar le
forosko vakjardjas na feri o kriminaliteto le avre zhenengo numa o kriminaliteto kathar
o them: le Roma trajin ando kalo choripe ando Balkano thaj musaj te kiden so shuden le
gadzhe te keren lengi vijaca angoda o guberno thaj le bare korporaciji keren le maj bare
kriminalni akciji thaj pradi. Me xavas-man kathe ke le do-rigengo doshako si so si provacijako thaj profundno, ke Selman andi laki persona, sar Romni, si sajek kriminalno; le
korporaciji kaj aven ande le komunitetura si kriminalni thaj le Romnja kaj si bi-glasoske
keren i maj bari kriza ande kadi regija. Le artistako trupo vulisarel kado maripe thaj kado
avel maj jazno/evidentno kana i artista eksplikil i motivacija palal lake aktciji: Kamav te
nashav kathar bilashe trejabi/sheja numa te na garavav kon sim.

La Selmanaka dongi pozicija te avel leduj andruni thaj avruni ande lake personalnone Romano komuniteto thaj i maj bari artaki lumja anklel vuni kathar la artistake maj
zurale thaj provokativni buchja. Ando MERCEDES 310 (2014), ame dikhas la artista kaj
ashel sar modicko modela Mercedes, kaj i artista phenel si-man pachiv pala late. Ando
kadi matora/kado vordon,phenel, sajek shaj arakhes vuni ruzhinime sastri kaj muri
familija kerel peski vijaca kathar o kidipe kakalestar. Kamav te sikavav tumen barimasa o kontrasto mashkar le duj realitetura. Si man pachiv kadale matorake/vordoneske
thaj pala kodja hurijadilem ande rajkane gada. Kathe i artista naj ando akordo vaj chi
marel-pe protif i estisizizacija kathar korporaticka zora thaj laka personalnonja strazhno
pozicija sar Romni. Pothan voj farmakujil laki audiencija kiposa kaj mezil sar ekha modistickonja fotograficko sesija, ekh lumja kaj sajek chorel i Romani kultura, Lake melale
parne manusha/vastune thaj lako rajkano parno fistano, lake lundzhi kale bal thaj lako

muj porado, laki expresija prasal la audiencijake empatija pala laki bi-baxt thaj pe jekhfjalo data sikavel lako personalno pozicija zoraki. Dur kathar i Kate Moss, i Non-Romni
kaj sikavelas Gypsy fashion cigani moda, Selman trajil telal i sabija Domokleski thaj sar
artista voj rodel te reprezentil kadi lumja, na te kerel politikalno kritiko kathar o Vesto,
numa sar vorbipe anda laka slobodimaski pozicija sar Romni thaj internacionalno artista.
Selman shpidel o pushipe kathar le Roma thaj pengi pozicija ande dzheografikalno
thaj idejolodzhikalno mapa kathar Europicko identiteto thaj vazdel o pushipe anda so
hachjarel-pe te na avel parni thaj bi-nacijaki andi Europa. Andi Roma Performing the Flag Roma Kaj Performin o Barjako,(2013), kerel amen te gindisavos sar ame shaj keras svato
anda art thaj socijalno parudzhipe ando kontaksto kaj azbal le manushen kaj naj len le
maj fundementalni manushenge chachimata, tha-vi, naj len nacija te feril len sar citizanura. Andi kadi performancija, Selman bi te khinjardjol zumavel te performil o barjako
kathar i Romani nacija savi, sar phenel i artista, naj la them.

Ame, le Roma, naj amen amaro thagaripasko Romano them, numa si amen i antrego lumja. O Romano barjako si horizontalno thaj si vunato opral thaj zeleno telal thaj
ando mashkar si loli rota,Selma phenel. I vunato boja sikavel o cheri/del thaj si amari
kapa. O zeleno si i boja la phuvaki thaj si semno ke ame trajis pe svako riga ande lumja.
I loli rota sikavel amaro mishkipe thaj amari maripe...kamlem te kerel dzhuvdo amaro
barjako.
Cirdimaskones, ame dikhas i artista, lake jakha phandade ando filmicko segmento kathar
laki performancija. I artista chi mekel amen te dikhas andre lake jakha, ashavel amen te
zhas andre kado avruni lumja. Pothan, i Selman sikavel laki ljufta te kerel dzhuvdo o
barjako. Vramja-vramjatar, voj perel kana zumavel te del-pe rota kaj sikavel sar le grupura Romenge naj ando strazhno feri pala le diportaciji thaj diskriminacija, numa thaj-vi
pala i obliteracija penga historijako, o chorimos penge kulturako thaj i mobilacija kathar
penga mizerija te kerel politikalno kritiko. I artista sikavel amen laki resistancija, na
resistancija protif Vestikano kapitalismo, numa o chacho maripe te aresel thaj te ingarel
personalno thagaripe. I artista na feri perel te performil o barjako numa o barjako
naj khanchi bi o zhuvindo trupo la artistako, finke chi representil o them/i nacija ni ekh
dzheografikalno spacija. Pothan, sikavel i ljufta minoriteteski te trajil thaj te maj barjol desar but kenturi, kathe sikavel anume o peripe la artistako te performil amenge thaj-vi te
performil pe pacima le Romenge. Pe kasavo, laka dongi pozicija si sajek amensa. I selma
phenel maj ekh data: Kamav te nashav kathar bilashe trejabi/sheja numa te na garavav
kon sim.

Artist statement
My work is based on the creation of art - be it in form of objects, situations, performances, or video-installations - that reaches individuals
and larger communities. The most important thing is that I use my
identity not to tell people that my art belongs to Roma, but that my art
constitutes my reality and my way of living. Growing up in the ghetto
and being identified as one of the white girls in the Roma community, has given me a different view of the world. When I was young, I
spent my childhood in the street. My ability and urge to convey these
experiences manifested itself in a talent for, and language of, the arts.
My work as an artist also relies on research, which I communicate
through paintings, installations, performances, photography and video works. I want to show a picture of life to a myriad of societies and
cultural contexts. Because I am Roma, my ethnic identity and the concomitant experiences of living life without a nation, and as part of the
largest and most persecuted minority in Europe, inform this research
and its artistic expression. With my culture, traditions and customs,
and by using pictures and sounds, I teach those people who are not
Roma about us, and I address the many problems we are all experiencing today. My works are products from my everyday life. They are
reality. They are not fiction.

Art itself for me represents a space for personal expression and also
an experiment; my need to communicate with the world. My position
and task in the system of art is to make a contemporary picture that
will mean something to those who want equality in the world. Exploring the presence of Roma in society according to me is connected
with destruction; a collision of sociological and cultural identities of
human beings. As such, the main protagonist in most of my works is
myself. Why? Because I think that it is important to take part in something that I believe in. My body stands for these emancipatory practices, and it is directly linked to the art that stems from the process of
communication and confrontation. But art for me also serves as an
escape from the bad things I encounter in various communities, even
my own. Most importantly, art challenges me not to hide what I really
am. The concept and execution of my works summon the spectators
to confront the content of the work; and to better understand the intricate relations between identity, race, gender, and equality. Some
might say that I am a very political artist; however, I never show the
political content directly. Instead, my work indirectly pushes people
to think beyond the obvious. Making people happy, smile, cry, nervous, is one way of playing a game where emotions become part of
the work I create as an artist. It is therefore communal as much as it is
personal.

Artistesko Phenipe
Muri buchi si fundime po kerimos artako shaj te avela andi forma
kathar trejabi, situaciji, performanciji vaj videjo-instalaciji kaj aresel
jekhoro vaj thaj maj bare komunitetura. I maj importantno dzhela si
te kerav hazna kathar muro personalno identiteto numa te na phenav
ke muri arta si Romani numa te phenav ke muri arta si muro rejaliteto
thaj i manijera kaj me dzhuvav. Barilem ando barijo/andi mahala kaj
prindzhardilem sar jekh kathar le parne cheja ando Romano komuniteto thaj anda kodja si man diferentno perspektiva kathar i lumja.
Kana simas terni, nakhlem muro ciknipe ande ulica. Muro abiliteto
thaj muro kamipe te sikavav kakale eksperijenciji ankliste ando talento le artengo.
Muri buchi sar artista ambladjol pe rodipe kaj komunikativ kathar sliki, instalaciji, performanciji, fotografija thaj videjicka buchja. Kamav
te sikavav slika dzhuvipaski/patreto dzhuvipasko kaj but socijetetura
thaj kulturalni kontekstura. Finke me sim Romni mure etnikicko identiteto thaj le kethanutne eksperijencija kaj dzhuvav bi-nacijako thaj-vi
sar membra kathar o maj baro thaj o maj persekutime minoriteto andi
Europa, cirdel kado artisticko rodipe thaj peska artisticko eksprecija.
Mura kulturasa, tradicijansa thaj hadetura, thaj te kerav hazna kathar
sliki thaj hangura, sikavav kakale zhene kaj naj Roma kon sam ame,
le Roma thaj cirdav atencija ka sa le problemura kaj mora te das muj
adjes.

Mure buchja aven kathar mure djesesko dzhuvdipe. Si rejaliteto. Naj

fikcija. Pala mande, art representil spacija pala personalno reprezentacija thaj-vi pala eksperimentacija: Muro trobulipe te komunikativ
la lumjasa. Muri pozivija thaj zadatko andi sistema artaki si te kerav
adjesutni slika kaj del hachjaripe kodole zhenende kaj kamen te dikhen
egaliteto andi lumja. Te hachjaren ke si Roma ando socijeteto, pala
mande,si konektime destrukcijasa; ekh malavipe kathar socjolodzhikalni thaj kulturalni eventura manushenge. Pala kodja, i maj bari protagonista ande le maj bute mure buchjatar sim me. Pe soste? Finke
gindiv ke si importantno/vazhno te kerav participajija ando wareso saveste pachjav. Muro trupo sikavel slobodimaske prakciji thaj si
konektime worta kaj arta kaj avel kathar le procheso kathar komunikacija thaj konfrontacija. Numa art, pala mande, si nashipe kathar
le voruci trejabi kaj arakhav ande vuni komunitetura wunivar ando
muro. Maj importantnones, art tromavel man te na garavav kon sim.
O koncepto thaj eksekucija kather muri buchi akharel le spektatoria te
den muj ka le kontentura kathar muri buchi; thaj te hachjaren maj feder/mishto le ansuchime relacija mashkar identiteto, rasa, dzhendra
thaj egaliteto, Vuni zhene shaj phenen ke me sim but politikalno artista; sargodi chi maj sikavav worta o politikalno kontento, ando than/
nego muri buchi kerel manushen te gindisavon maj dur kathar so si
hachjardo. Te kerav le manushen te aven baxtale, te asaven, te roven
te aven izdrane si jekh manijera te kelavav/chelavav kaj hachjarimata
aven partija la buchjako kaj kerav sar artista. Pala kodja, muri arta si
komunalno thaj-vi personalno.

Roma performing the flag, act nb.1

HD Video, 4 12, 2013

We Roma do not have our own state. But we do have the entire world as our
home. With this video, I wanted to bring our flag to life. The Roma flag is horizontal and composed of a blue upper layer, a green lower stripe, and a red
pinwheel at the center. The blue signifies the sky, our blanket. Green is the color
of the earth, it is a sign that we exist all around the world. The red wheel represents our movement and our struggle. In this work, I perform the Romani
flag, struggling to form a perfect cartwheel. Despite failing many times, I dust
myself off and try again.

Roma kana performin o stejago. Act nb 1

HD Video, 4 12, 2013

Ame, le Roma, naj amen amaro them. Numa si amen o antrego lumja sar amaro
kher. Kadale videjonsa, kamavas te dzhuvindisarav amaro stejago/barjako/ O
Romano stejago/barjako si horizontalno thaj si vunato opral, zeleno telal thaj
si-les loli rota ando mashkar. O wunato sikavel o cheri, amari ponjava. O zeleno si i boja la phuvako. Si semno kaj ame trajis pe swako riga ande lumja. I loli
rota sikavel amaro mishkipe thaj amaro maripe. Andi kadi buchi, performiv
o Romano barjako, zumavav te kerav o maj lasho dimos pa korate. Nitala perav
butivar, khosav o praxo mandar thaj zumavav maj ekh data.

Do not look into Gypsy eyes

Video, 504, 2013

Do not look into Gypsy eyes is a mantra of the hyper-sexualized Roma woman. A Roma woman is exotic, erotic and exciting. By the same token she is a bit too
dangerous, a bit too dirty, a bit too desirable a woman whose eyes will seduce
you, put a spell on you, and curse you.
This work is based on the stereotypes and prejudices of the Romani woman.
As a member of this community, as a woman and artist, I want to provoke the
audience and turn their attention against discrimination and commodification of
the female body.

Na Dikh Ande Romane Jakha

Video 504, 2013

Na Dikh Ande Romane Jakha si mantra kathar i preja but seksualni Romni. I Romni si kuchivali, xanzhvali thaj phabarimaski. Pe jekhfjalo vrjama voi si
cira shtazhno, cira melali, cira cirdimaski voj si Romni kaske jakha del tut po
lazhav, farmakujujil/jakhaldel tut thaj del tut arman.
Kadi buchi si fundime pe le stereotipura thaj predzhudiciji kathar i Romni.
Sar membra katar kado Romano kuminiteto, thaj sar Romni thaj Romani artista,
kamav te cirdav i atencija kathar i audiencija te hachjaren i diskriminacija thaj i
kodifinacija kathar o zhuvliako trupo.

Installation: Paintings on metal (neoironism),

variable dimensions, 2014This installation, Paintings on Metal, is a group of ten paintings that are materialized on discarded iron, aluminum or brass scraps. Each piece represents a part
of my life, whether a portrait of a family member, a self-portrait or scenes from
my community. Metal was and still is an integral part of my life and the source of
existence for my family. I have been around metal since my childhood. The surface of these paintings is simultaneously my artwork and the means of survival
for my family.

Instalacija: Sliki po Mitalo (nevosastrunipe)

Kadi instalacija, Sliki po Mitalo si grupo desh sliki kaj aven andi egzistencija
vaj aven shudine, sastrune, aluminicka vaj harkune-galboni kotora . Swako kotor
reprezentil/sikavel ekh partija kathar muro dzhuvipe/trajo, ekh patreto kathar
ekh familjako membro, ekh patreto mandar vaj panorami kathar muro komuniteto. Mitalo sas, thaj-vi si akana, importantno partija kathar muro dzhuvipe/trajo
thaj i kranica la vijacaki/le dzhuvdipaski pala muri familija. Simas ankolime mitalosa desar muro chavoripe. I faca kathar kadale sliki si pe jakhfjalo vramja muri
arta thaj-vi sikavel sar trajil/dzhuvel muri familija.

Installation: Covered art, 2014

On the covers I painted and wrote what I desired, what irritated me, what made
me happy or sad... On these caps I described my whole life -- my past and my
future. I call this work covered art, because some things in life should be covered and named.

Instalacija: Garadi art, 2014

Pe le jedrura, farbosardem/slikisardem that skrijisardem so kamavas, so derandzhilas man, so kerdjas man baxtali thaj so kerdjas man bibaxtali...Pe kadale
jedrura phendem sar dikhelas muro antrego trajo/dzhuvdipe. Muro nakhlipe
thaj muro anglipe. Akharav kadi buchi garadi art finke vuni trejabi ando
muro zhuvdipe mora te aven garadi thaj dino anav.

Anew
HD Video, 47 2014
In this performance, filmed in my hometown, Bihac, I sought to capture the nature of repetition present in our lives. Life is cyclical, for every death, there is
abirth, and with every birth there is death. I often feel as if this is true for my own
life just when I believe that I have resolved one set of problems, yet another set
appears. This work is not just about me, it is about you, it is, in fact, about us. This
is our lived reality. Sometimes we stand at the peak, at other times we fall deep
down in the valley, and then the cycle repeats. Rolling down the hill represents
survival.

Maj Jekh Data

HD Video 47 2014
Ande Kadi performancija kaj sas filmime/kerdi ando muro vatrako foro, Biha,
zumadem te astarav i repeticija kaj egzistil an amaro trajo/duvdipe. O trajo si
sar jekh rota, kana varekon merel, varekon si bijando thaj pala svako bijandipe si
jekh meripe. Butivar me hachjarav kado si chacho pala muro personalno trajo/
duvdipe. Kana me pachjav ke arakhlem i solucija pala vuni problemi, peren pe
mande maj but problemi. Kadi buchi naj feri pa/kathar mande, si pa/kathar tute,
si chachunes, pa/kathar savorende. Kado si o rejaliteto kaj ame trajis/divis.
Vunivar amen sam opre, pe aver data, amen sam tele thaj maj jekh data i rota le
trejoski/duvdipeski avel pale/irinel. O tavalipe tele kathar i xar la plajingaki
reprezentil amaro ashipe zhivindo/divindo.

16 000 PARTS HD Video, 77,2014

This short film is a raw representation of the impact of State social and economic
factors on the most intimate of familial relations, the relationship between father
and son. The modern family today is exhausted, tensions run high as it fights to
survive a war on multiple fronts. In the family economy, financial problems become divisive daggers driving a wedge between the dearest of family members.
The people in this film are not actors; they are my family. This is not a staged
conversation. The circumstances that affect them, of finding a way to make
ends meet, are one and the same for all of us, everywhere, and especially in my
country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The audience focuses on understanding the
problem, and finds a reflection of their own circumstances in this one exchange
between father and son. In that moment, we do not think about nationality and
ethnic or religious identity we are all One, challenged by the same troubles.

16,000 Kotora HD Video 772014

Kado skurto filmo si nangi reprezentacija kaj sikavel so si o resulteto kathar o
maladimos kathar le themeske socialni thaj ikonomikicki trejabi pe le maj bare
personalnone familijake relaciji, i relacija mashkar o dad haj o shav/chavo. I
Moderni familija adjives si khinjardi, o maripe te trajil kerel but problemi. An la
familijaki ikonomija, lovenge problemi keren churja kaj shinen ande kotorende
o kamipe mashkar le maj pashe membria ande familija. Le manusha ando
kado filmo naj aktora, von si muri familija. Kado naj divano fikcjonalno. Le
trejabi kaj azban len ando pengo rodimos te keren pengi vijaca si jekhfjalo pala
savore amendar pe svako riga thaj specialnones ando muro them, i Bosna thaj
Hercegovina. I audiencija chuvel pengo atancija te hachjarel pe kadi problemura
thaj dikhel i reflekcija kathar penge personalni problemi ando kado parujimos
mashkar o dad thaj pesko chavo/shav. Ando kado momento chi gindis pala
amaro nacionaliteticko, etnikicko vaj religijako identiteto Sa sam jekh, thaj si
amen jekhfjalone/stone problemi.

Naj Tumen Ideja/Chi Zhanen Kon Sim si zhivindi performancija kaj

phenav ande repeticija i fraza: Naj tumen ideja. Kadi performancija si but personalno. Si muri phagipe/nekazo dzhubjardo. Naj Tumen Ideja - naj tumen ideja
kathar muro trajo. Thaj-vi chi zhanen kon sim, chi zhanen muro baxtalipe vaj
muro truzhnipe. Chi zhanen anda i dukh kaj shaj-vi te avela ando muro trajo
vaj nichi thaj chi zhanen so hachjarav-man po momento kana kerav kadi performancija anglal zhuvindi audiencija. Naj tumen ideja.
Nitala kadi performancija sikavel le specifikni cirmunstanciji kathar muro trajo.
Pachjav ke malavel i universalno sirma/mesadzha. Naj amen ideja anda le marimata kaj avre zhene musaj te den muj ando lengo trajo. Naj amen ideja numa
gindis ke hachjaras.

You Have No Idea/ Vi Nemate Pojma is a live piece that is to be performed, where I will continually repeat the phrase, you have no idea. This
performance is a very intimate one. It is my frustration brought to life. You have
no idea you have no idea about my life as a whole. You do not who I am, nor
do you know my happiness or sadness. You do not know about the presence or
absence of pain in my life, nor how I feel at the moment that I perform this piece
to a live audience. You have no idea.
Though this piece refers to the specific circumstances of my life, I believe that it
carries a universal message. We have no idea about the struggles that others are
facing. We have no idea, but we think that we do.

Project Biennial D-0 ARK Underground, Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina - photo credit: Almin Zrno

Iron Curtain/Mercedes 310, 2015

What is a safe place? Does it exist in the 21st century? Bunkers were where people could hide in case of an atomic attack.
In my life, my bunker, my safe place, was my familys Mercedes 310, a cavernous van used for collecting, transporting and selling scraps of iron metal. This car
and these metal scraps were our source of survival.
The Iron Curtain was a symbol of ideological conflict and a physical barrier dividing Europe into two halves from WWII to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In
my piece, the Iron Curtain is strewn disassembled on the floor it symbolizes
the difficult path that the Romani people have to walk on in order to disassemble
walls of prejudice. We build walls and borders to divide people and nationalities;
I wish to scale those walls and borders in order to erase difference, to shout that
we are all equal.

Sastruni Firanga Mecedes 310, 2015

So si sigurno than? Si kasavo than andi 21to kentura? Bunkeria sas thana kaj shaj
garadjon o publiko kathar le bombi/grenadi atomikicka.
Ando muro trajo, muri bunkeri sas mura familijako Mercedes 310, ekh
bare-porengo vordon kaj haznilas muri familija te kidel thaj te ingarel shudino
mitalo/shudine sastrija. Kadi matora thaj kadale mitalicka kotora meklas muri
familija te trajil/dzhuvel.
I Sastruni Firanga sas semno kathar o idejolodzhikalno marimos thaj o phandajimos kaj hulade Europa ande duj dopasha kathar o dujto lumjako marimos zhi-ka
o perimos kathar le Berlinosko zido ando bersh 1989. Ande muri eksibicija, I
Sastruni Firanga le Berlinosko zido si sikado sa ande kotorende pe palja si semno kather e phari vulma ka musai te phiren o Romano them te peraven le zidura
prezhudicjake. Wazdas zidura thaj granici te hulaven manusha thaj nacjonalitetura. Kamav te ankljav kodole zidura thaj te zhav inkjal kodole granici te peravav
amare diferenciji te phenav ando zuralo glaso ke ame sam sa egalni.

MERCEDES 310
Photos, 2014 - photo credit: Alisa Burzic
Through these photographs I show my attitude towards this car, a Mercedes 310.
Inside the car, one can find some rusty iron, that my family collects and earns a
living with. I want to show you proudly the contrast between these two realities.
Im dressed up because of my respect for this car.
This car, for me and my family, represents safety.

MERCEDES 310
Photos, 2014 - Alisa Burzic
Kakale slikansa sikavav so hachjarav anda kadi matora ekh Mercedes 310 thaj- vi
pe soste dav pachiv pala late. Andi kadi matora, sajek shaj arakhes vuni kotora
ruzhinime sastri kaj muri familija kidel te kerel lako dzhuvdipe. Kamav te sikavav tumenge barimasa i diferencija kathar le duj rejalitetura finke si man pachiv
pala kodi matora thaj pala kodja me sim hurjadi ande rajkane gada.
Kadi matora pala mande thaj pala muri familija representil siguripe.

Do not be like me! oil on canvas, 150x120, 2016

Do not be like me, is a phrase that I have heard escape from my mothers mouth
too many times. In five words, it is a phrase that encapsulates the relationship
between my mother and myself.
My mother was born in 1967. In the Romani tradition, her marriage was arranged
at the tender age of thirteen. I do not have the authority to declare our traditional
ways as a mistake, but I do have a right to say that tradition must have its limits.
At the time of her marriage in 1980, she was obligated to respect tradition and to
accept the rules set forth by her parents. She did not have a normal childhood; she
never attended school. She spent her life as a housewife and mother. Throughout
my childhood she would give me advice, Dear daughter, when you grow up,
do not be like me. She was never in a position to teach me or help me with any
of my schoolwork, nevertheless, she taught me how to be strong. She taught me
the strength and bravery in silence; she taught me how to fight with silence.
I am similar to my mother. Today, I look like my mother at twenty-five. Despite
the similarities, there are marked differences between us. At twenty-five, she had
been married for twelve years and had birthed five children. At twenty-five years
old, I am not married, I do not have children, I am educated, and I am an artist
and a teacher.
This painting depicts the identity of one person in two bodies.
This piece could have easily been a photograph, but it is not, for something is stolen from the artists hands through the lens of a camera. I wanted to experience
the art of creating us, that is, my mother and me, by painting us on a canvas by my
own hands, with my own lines and colors, in my own way I wanted the canvas
to drink in a part of her and my soul into its pores.

Na Ker Sar Mande! oil on canvas, 170x120, 2016

Na Ker Sar Mande Kadale panzh svaturja/ alavura si savjeto/turvinjipe kaj
ashundem butivar kathar muri dej. Si jekh fraza kaj astarel i relacija mashkar
mande thaj muri dej.
Muri dej arakhadili ando bersh 1967. Ande Romani tradicija lake perintura
kerdine lako tumnipe thaj voj moritisajli kana sas deshutrin bershengi. Naj man o
autoriteto/pravo te phenav ke amari tradicija si bezax numaj si man o autoriteto/
pravo te phenav ke amari tradicija mora te avel maj hachjarimaski.
Kana muri dej moritisajli ando bersh 1980, musaj sas lake te del pachiv kaj tradicija
thaj kaj lake perintonge regli, Nas la normalno ternipe/tiknipe. Chi maj sas ande
shkola. Nakhlas lako trajo/duvdipe sar khereski romni thaj sar chavorengi
dej. Kana simas tiknori voj delas man kado turvinjipe: Dragonja Chejorije,
kana barjos, na ker sar mande. Nashtisajli te azhutil/pomozhil man ande muri
shkolaki buchi, po kaver vast, sikadjas man te avav zurali. Sikadjas man te avav
zurali thaj te avav tromoli an o domolipe/silencija. Sikadjas man te marav-man
domolipasa.
Me sim sar muri dej. Adjives, dikhav pe muri dej kana sas bishupanzh bershengi.
Si but kaj si jekhfjalo mashkar amende numaj si but kaj si diferentno mashkar
amende. Kana sas bishupanzh bershengi voj sas moritime desar deshuduj bersha
thaj kerdjas panzh chavoren. Me sim bishupanzh bershengi thaj chi sim moritime.
Naj man glati/chavore. Sim shkolaki/edukatime, sim artista thaj sim sikavni.
Kadi slika/Kado patreto sikavel jekh zheni an duj trupura.Kadi buchi shaj lokes
te avelas fotografo numaj nas fotografo finke vareso si chordino kathar le vasta
le artistake kathar i glinda la kameraki. Kamavas te dav-man i eksperiencija
te kerav amen kodja si, me thaj muri dej , te kerav slika amendar po jedro mure
personalnone vastensa mure linejansa thaj mure bojansa/kolorensa ande muri
personalno manijera. Kamlem o jedro te pijel jekh kotor kathar lako thaj kathar
muro duho/spirit/odji an le jedreski morchi.

HD video 545, 2015 2016

The video SALT WATER (AT 47) is about my mother and her first contact
with the sea. Her big wish was always to see for herself if it is really salty like she
heard that it was. In this video, I captured that first moment and her reaction.
AFTER 47 refers to her lack of documents when she came from Kosovo to Bosnia. Culturally, the act of a woman leaving her paternal home to live with her husband is perceived as a marriage, whether or not it is officially recognized by the state or religious
authorities. At that time in particular, there was no concept of simply living together.
Hence, at thirteen, she was unofficially married to my then seventeen-year old father,
but the marriage was not state certified. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, she was left
stateless. In 2014, after many discussions with authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
she managed to obtain Bosnian citizenship. After 47 years, she received her first passport. I decided to make her wish come true. I took her on a vacation to the sea.

HD video 545, 2015 2016

O Videjo LONDALOPAJ (KA 47) si storijo anda muri dej thaj lako maj angluno kontakto la marijasa/moresa. Voj sajek kamelas te dikhel pala peste te i marija sas londali sar
ashundjas. Ando kado videjo, astardem lako maj angluno momento thaj laki rejakcija.
Ka 47 phenel kana voj avili kaj Bosna kathar Kosovo thaj nas la dokumentura. Tradicjalnones, kana romani chej mekel lake perinturengo kher te zhal lake
romeste kadi si prindzhardo te avel suripe, dali vaj nichi si prindzhardo kathar
o them/i drzhava vaj le religijake autoritetura. Tela kadi vramja nas koncepto ke
ekh kupla shaj beshen kethane. Pala kodja, kana voj sas deshutrin bershengi voj
sas ilegalno surime mure dadesa kaj sas deshifta bershengo numa o suripe nas
prindzhardo kathar i drzhava/o them. Maj palal kather o pharajimos la Jugoslavako voj sas mekli bi-themeski/bi-drzhavaki. Ando 2014, maj palal kathar but
diskuciji le autoriteturensa andi Bosna thaj Hercegovina, dashtisajli te lel Bosnako
citizanipe/nacjonaliteto. Maj palal kathar 47 bersh, dine lake lako maj angluno
pasaporto. Kerdem muri godzhi te kerav lako kamipe/suno rejaliteto. Lem la pe
vakancija kaj marija/more.

Composition: bori, nevjesta, the bride 2016

With my performance, I wish to emulate the sound of pain as it represents
my mothers past. She got married at a very young age. At the age of thirteen, she became a bride. Still a child, she shouldered the burden of a woman,
taking care of everything in a family home. The role of the woman is to feed
her children, her husband, and the entire family; she is to cook, to clean and to
serve everyone silently. This is what my mothers life looked like. I want to be
in my mothers body - I want to feel her struggle in combination with my own
pain.
My performance portrays the tradition of child marriage, where the decision
to marry is made for the child by its parents before she is even able to make
decisions for herself. This performance relates an indifference to the rights of
women, to the experience of a marginalized group of people, to the potency of
nationalism and racism.
The belt seen in the performance pinches my waist, so that it may be made
very tiny, because a slim waist is supposedly a mark of femininity.
I choose to turn my back to the audience.
With my back visible, but my face hidden, I create a private self. My face is
hidden as my mothers was: for forty-seven years she wore one of two masks,
either the mask of a wife or a mother. For forty-seven years her real face was
hidden, made insignificant and invisible to the outside world.
Duration of the performance 50 minutes, Dreamland gallery, Buffalo, New York
Video stills by Pierce McCleary

Kompozicija, nevjesta, bori 2016

Andi muri performancija, kamav te kerav imitacija o hango dukhako sar
reprezentil mura dako nakhlipe. Moritisajli/dzheli bori kana sas terni. Dzheli
bori kana voi sas deshutrin bershengi. Sar tiknori, kerdjas i buchi sar romni
kana lelas sama kathar sa le responsibilitetura ando familijako kher. I funkcija
la romnjako si te pravarel/del te xan lake chavoren, lako rom thaj i antrego
familija: mora te kiravel, wuzharel thaj te avel savorengi sluga ando mirnipe.
Kadi si sar mezilas mura dako dzhuvipe. Kamav te chuvav man ando mura
dako trupo - kamav te hachjarav lako maripe andi kombinacija mura personalnonja dukhasa.
Muri performancija sikavel i tradicja kathar ciknipasko suripe/moritimos, kaj
i desizija pala o suripe le ciknipasko si kerdi pa i familija maj anglal kathar i
cikni si phuri dosta te kerel lake personalni desiziji. Kadi performancija azbal i
indiferencija vash le chachimata/hataja le romnjange, kaj eksperiencija kathar
ekh mardzinajzilime grupo manushendar kaj i potencija nacionalizmosko thaj
rasizmosko. Muri haravli/kushtik kaj dikhes ande performancija chuplil muro
mashkar te kerel les preja tango/cino finke ekh sano mashkar mora te sikavel
marka zhuvlipaski.
Alosarav te amboldav muri zeja kaj audijencia. Kana kerav muri zeja vidljivo
thaj muro muj garado, kerav privatno persona. Muro muj si garado sar mura
dako muj sas: desar shtarvardesh thaj hifta bersh voi phiradjas jekh kathar duj
bashlikura, o romnjako bashliko vaj o dako bashliko. Desar shtarvardesh thaj
hifta bersha lako chacho muj sas garado, kerdo bi-khanchesko thaj bi-vidljivo
kaj i avruni lumja.

Do you have a boyfriend?

HD video 58,2012
This video refers to the cultural views of my people that demand that girls
should be married at a very young age. This work questions the limits of tradition. A banal question renders an absurd political answer: Do you have a
boyfriend?. I seek to cross the boundary of this part of my tradition, to reject
it, to fight against it.

Si Tut Phiramno/Prijeteno?
HD Video 58, 2012
Kado video azbal le kulturalni tradiciji kathar muro manush/them kaj mangen
ke Romane cheya moritin-pe/len roma kana von si terne. Kadi buchi pushel le
ankolimata amara tradicijatar. Ekh dilo/prosto pushimos meritil-pe maj dilo
politikalno dimos anglel/atweto. : Si tut phiramno? Rodav te te zhav inkal i
granitsa kakala tradicijatar, te obdiv la, te marav-man protif late.

Selma Selman (b.1991) comes from Bosnia and Herzegovina and is of

Romani origin. Her work embodies the struggles of her own life as well as her
community, employing a plethora of media such as performance, painting,
photography and video installations. Selman defines herself as an artist of Roma
origins, and not a Romani artist, a subtle, yet critical distinction in her work.
Her aim is to break down the prejudice which essentializes her community to
the lowest common denominator denying them of the right to self expression.
Selman utilizes her personal background as a lens through which she can
understand the universal human condition and its idiosyncrasies .
She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2014 from Banja Luka Universitys
Department of Painting, where she studied under the supervision of Veso Sovilj,
and worked with renowned Bosnian performance artist Mladen Miljanovic, who
represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 55th Venice Biennial in 2013. She is
currently pursuing her MFA at Syracuse University where she is also teaching
art.

EDUCATION
2015- Syracuse University, MAF-Transmedia, Visual and Performing Arts,
Syracuse, New York State
2014 Central European University, Roma Graduate Preparation Program,
Budapest, Hungary (courses
in Sociology, Anthropology, Academic Writing)
2010-14 Academy of Fine Arts, University of Banja Luka (Specialization:
Academic Painter)
2013 International Summer Academy, 3-week class Arte Util with Tania
Bruguera (course on making useful art projects)
FESTIVALS, RESIDENCES AND PERFORMANCES
2016 Mikser festival, (performances: I will laugh and You have no idea),
Belgrade, Serbia

2016 Hero Mother curated by Bojana Peji and Dr. Rachel Rits-Volloch,
(performance: You have no idea) in Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin
2015 Open screen Modernity loved, hated or ignored (participated with
works: Saltwater at 47 and What is my role in all of this?) Luxemburg festival
2015 Spark Performance Vol.6 A Few Other Nows (performance: Do not look
into Gypsy eyes) Syracuse, New York
2015 Public Open Studio ComArt (participated with work 16000 Parts)
Syracuse, New York
2015 PichWise festival (participated with the work two chickens, two fishes)
Sarajevo, BIH
2015 15. Art performance art festival to continue=to be (participated with
performance The cycle) Osijek, Croatia
2015 Residence at ISCP center, New York
2015 Body in danger (discussion, presentation at gallery Dreamland) Buffalo,
New York
2015 Performance You have no idea at gallery Dreamland, Buffalo, New York
2014 Workshop III at Moderna Museet, (presentation of art works: 16000
Parts, Do not look into Gypsy eyes, Roma Performing the Flag Act 1,
Anew) Malm
2014 International Festival of Performing Arts, My country, Staglinec,
(participated with the works titled You Do Not Have an Idea and Love is the
most beautiful when you are waiting for it) Croatia
2014 International Festival of Performing Arts, Week of live art, (participated
with the performance titled You Do Not Have an Idea) Dubrovnik, Croatia
2014 Project BAUHAUS Goes South East Europe, 1914/2014 (performance
titled Changing Identities) Sarajevo, BiH
2014 Video Art Festival Miden, Kalamatas, (the video work Roma Performing
The Flag Act 1 was selected for this art festival) Greece
2014 Multimedia art project,1st video edition, Museum of Contemporary Art,
(participated with two video works: Roma Performing The Flag Act 1 and
16000 Parts) Banja Luka, BiH

2013 International Land Art Festival Straw, (made a sculpture with my friends
using straw as material. We made golden braids of 4 meters and hung them on
trees) Osijek, Croatia
2013 Feminist Cultural Festival Be-Fem, (participated with the performance
titled Do You Have a Boyfriend?) Belgrade, Serbia
2013 International Congress of Contemporary Art and Theory FORMER
WEST, (attended lectures by famous theorists, artists and philosophers like
Boris Groys, Boris Buden, Mladen Stilinovic) Berlin, Germany

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 Contemporary Thesaurus, Museum of contemporary art in Vojvodina,
Novi Sad
2016 The Works Art and Design Festival in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
2016 Conquer the Beauty, New Children Gallery, New Orleans
2016 Hero Mother curated by Bojana Peji and Dr. Rachel Rits-Volloch,
in Kunstquartier Bethanien, at MOMENTUM & Studio 1 in Kunstquartier
Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
2016 Group show at Fullersta Grd, Bakro Stockholm, Sweden
2015 Biennial of Contemporary Art D-O ARK, Sarajevo, BiH
2015 ZVONO exhibition of the finalists and winner at gallery Duplex,
Sarajevo, BiH
2014 Apartman Banja Luka, BiH
2014 Calling Cards Gallery 8, Budapest, Hungary
2014 We want you, The 10th Berlin International Directors Lounge, Berlin,
Germany
2014 Minimum/Maximum 3 International group exhibition of miniatures,
Banja Luka, BiH
2013 Asymmetrical me, group exhibition of intermedia arts, Trebinje, BiH

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 I exist Gallery Schleifmhlgasse 12-14, Vienna, Austria
2016 I exist Gallery Dreamland, Buffalo, New York
2015 You have no idea Gallery Epeka, Maribor, Slovenia
2013 Poetics of the soul Gallery Udas, Banja Luka, BiH
2013 Love is the most beautiful when you are waiting for it Gallery San
Fedele, Milan, Italy
2009 First solo exhibition Gallery Una, Bihac, BiH
AWARDS
2015 Commendation of the Cultural Center for outstanding achievements in art,
Bihac, BiH
2014 Zvono art award for the best young artist in BiH
2014 Award for the best work in the field of painting at the Academy of Arts,
Banja Luka
2014 Award for the best work in the field of graphic design at the Academy of
Arts, Banja Luka
2013 Award for the best work in the field of intermedia arts at the Academy of
Arts, Banja Luka
2013 Dogma arts award for the best work of fine art, Banja Luka
2013 2ndnd place in the painting contest BiH in the EU, Zenica, BiH

Selma Selman (bjandi 17 Febuari, 1991, ando Bihac, Bosnia thaj Hercegovina)
si artista kathar Romani polekra. Laki buchi si representivo kathar lake marimata/ljufti thaj le marimata/ljufti kathar lako komuniteto. Selman kerel hazna
kathar bute adzhenciji kaj inkluzhil performanciji, pintura, thaj fotografija zhika videjo-instalacija te sikavel-pe sar individuala, romni thaj artista. Laki buchi
si personalno thaj-vi politikalno. Selman prezentil-pe sar artista kathar Romani
polekra, na feri Romani artista. I diferencija si kovlo numa kritikalno: katar laki
buchi, Selman rodel te vakjarel/del duma kaj universalnonja manusheski kondicija, kerel hazna kathar lake ankolimata sar lupo kathar late voj shaj hachjarel
o baripe kathar le manusheski eksperijencija. Andi laki buchi, kamel te peravel
predzhudiciji kaj prezentil lako komuniteto andi stereotipime manijera thaj kadi
chi mekel individualni membria te ekspresin-pe sar individualura. Selman dubisardjas lako bachelauriato ando Finiska Arti ando Departamento Slikango kathar
Banja-Lukicko Universiteto kaj sikjolas telal i supervivija kathar o Veso Sovic, thaj
kerdjas buchi le Mladen-Miljanovichesa, le vestime Bosnjake Performancijako artisto kaj reprezentisardjas i Bosnia ka le 55to Vinicicko Do-Bershengo ando 2013.
Akana voj sikjol lako MFA (Majstora Finicka Arti) ka o Syrakusicko Universiteto
(University of Syracuse) kaj voj kerel buchi sas azhutimaski sikamni/vuchitela.

Bajravipe/Educajica
2015 Syracuse University MAF Transmedija, Vizualno thaj Performancijako Art,
Syracuse, New York State.
2014 Central European University (Kentralno Europicko Universiteto) Romane
Graduatickone Preparacijako Programo, Budapeshti, Ungaro (kursi ande Socijologija, Antropologija thaj Akademikicko Skrijipe)
2010-14 Academy of Fine Arts (Akademija vash Finicka Arti), University of Banja
Luka (Specializacija: Akademikicko Slikaruca)
2013 International Summer Academy (Internacionalno Milaski Akademija)
trine-shonengi klasa, Arte Util la Tania-Brugerasa (Kurso kaj sikavel te kerel
haznike artake projektura.)

Festivalura, Rezidenciji thaj Performanciji

2016 Mikser Festival (Performanciji, Me Ka-Asav thaj Naj Tut Ideja). Belgrade, Serbia
2016 Hero Mother Vitijazicko Dej kuratime kathar Bojana Pejic thaj Dr. Rachel
Rits-Volloch ( Performancija, Naj Tut Ideja), ando Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin.
2015 Open Screen Phuterdo Ekrano - Moderniteto kamlo, mrzome thaj
bishterdilo (Kerdjas participacija le maj-pashe buchjansa: Londopaj ka 47 thaj So
si muri funkcija ande sare kadaleste?) Luxemburg City Film Festival.
2015 Spark Performance volumno.6 A Few Other Nows Cira Maj But Adjesutne
(Performancija: Na Dikh Ande Romane Jakha) Syracuse, New York.
2015 Public Open Studio Publikicko Phuterdo Studijo (Kerdem participajija mura
buchasa 16000 Kotora) Syracuse, New York.
2015 PichWise festival (kerdem participacija mura buchjasa duj khanja, duj
mashe) Sarajevo, BIH.
2015 15. Artaki performancija artako festivalo to continue to be (Kerdem participacija la performancijasa o siklo) Osjek, Xrvatija. .
2015 Beshipe ka ISCP New York
2015 Trupo ando strazhno ( vorbimos, prezentime ka Gallery Dreamland) Buffalo, New York.
2015 Performancija Naj tut ideja ka Gallery Dreamland, Buffalo, New York.
2014 Workshop 111 Ka Moderna Museet (prezentacija kathar artake buchja 16000
kotora, Na dikh ande Romane jakha, Roma kaj performin o barjako, acto 1,
Anew) Malmo
2014 International Festival of Performing Arts - Internacionalno Festivalo vash Performancijake Arta, :Muro Them, Staglinec (Kerdem participacija le buchjansa
Naj tut idejathaj O kamipe si o maj shukar kana azhukeres leste.) Xrvatija.
2014 International Festival of Performing Arts Internacionalno Festivalo vash Performancijake Arta. Week of Living Art - Kurko Zhuvindo Artako . (Kerdem
participacija kakala buchasa Naj tut ideja) Dubrovnik, Xrvatija.
2014 Project BAUHAUS Goes South East Europe, 1914/2014 (performancija bushlo
Parujindo identitetura) Sarajevo, BIH.

2014 Video Art Festival Miden, Kalamatas. (Sikadem i videjicko buchi Roma kaj
performin o barjako, Act 1 sas alome vash kado artako festivalo) Grecija.
2014 Multimedia Art Project, 1st video edition, Museum of Contemporary Art (Kerdem
participacoja do videjicka buchjansa: Roma kaj performin o barjako Act 1 thaj
16000 kotora) Banja Luka, BIH.
2014 Regional Festival of Independent Art Scene. BL-ART, (Performancija buchli :
Phejo Arakh Tut Kathar le Chorende/Kriminalurende) Banja Luka, BIH.
2013 International Land Art Festival Straw Phus(Kerdem phuseski skulptura
mure amalensa/ Kerdjam sumnakune khuvde kaj sas 4 metrura de lundzhi thaj
ambladjam len le kashtendar.) Osjek, Xrvatija.
2013 Feminist Cultural Festival Be Fem, (Kerdem participacija la performancijasa
: Si Tut Phiramno/Prijeteno?) Belgrade, Serbia.
2013 International Congress of Contemporary Art and Theory FORMER WEST
(Beshlem pe but lekturi kathar vestime thejoristi, artistura thaj filosoferia sar Boris Groys, Boris Buden, Mladen Stilinovic) Berlin, Njampco.
Grupicka Eksibiciji
2016 Contemporary Thesaurus, Museum of Contemporary Art, ando Vojvodina,
Novi Sad.
2016 The Works Art and Design Festival, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
2016 Conquer the Beauty, New Children Gallery, New Orleans, LA. USA.
2016 Hero Mother Vitijazicko Dej Kuratime kathar Bojana Pejic thaj Dr. Rachel
Rits-Volloch, ando Kunstquartier Bethanien , ka MOMENTUM & Studio 1 ando
Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin, Njampco.
2015 Gruposki Eksibicija ka Fulersta Grd Bakro Stockholm, Shvedo.
2015 Biennial of Contemporary Art D-O Ark, Sarajevo, BIH
2015 ZVONO Eksibicija vash le finalistura thaj dubitori/a kaj Galerija Duplex,
Sarajevo, BIH.
2014 Apartman Banja Luka, BIH.
2014 Akharimaske Karti , Galerija 8, Budapeshti, Ungaro.
2014 Ame mangas tut, la deshtonja Berlinickonja Internacionalnonja Direktorenga Kivotimaski Soba, Berlin, Njampco.

2014 Minimum/Maximum 3 Maj Xansi/Maj/But 3

exsibicija vash minejaturi , Banja Luka, BIH.

Internacionalno grupesko

2013 Asymmetrical me - Me bi-kuntarime, gruposki eksibicija vash intermedijake arta. Trebinje, BIH.
Korkore Eksibiciji
2016 I exist Trajiv Galerija Schleifmhlgasse 12-14 Vienna, Austria/Bjechi.
2015 I exist Trajiv Galerija Dreamland, Buffalo, New York, USA.
2015 Naj tut ideja Galerija Epeka, Maribor, Slovenia.
2013 Poetics of the soul Poetichi kathar le odjeske/duxoske Galerija Udas, Banja Luka.
2013 O kamipe si o maj shukar kana azhukares leste Galerija San Fedele, Milano, Italija.
2009 First solo exhibition O maj angluno korkori eksibicija Galerija Una , Bihac,
BIH.
Nagradi
2015 Komendacija kathar o Kulturalno Kentro vash levudime aresimata andi
arta, Bihac, BIH.
2014 ZVONO artaki nagrada vash i maj lashi terni artista ando Bosnia-Hercegovina.
2014 Nagrada vash i maj lashi buchi andi mal la pinturaki kaj Akademija le Artangi, Banja Luka, BIH.
2014 Nagrada vash i maj lashi buchi andi mal vash grafikico desinjo kaj Akademija Artange, Banja Luka, BIH.
2013 Nagrada vash i maj lashi buchi andi mal le intermedijake arta kaj Akademija
Artange, Banja Luka, BIH.
2013 Nagrada Dogma Arts vash i maj lashi buchi ande finicka arta , Banja Luka,
BIH.
2013 Dujto rindo ando pinturako kontesto Bosnia-Hercegovina andi Europicko
Unija, Zenica, BIH.

Jaz sem Selma Selman / Ja sam Selma Selman

Sodobna romska umetnost v Sloveniji in ire ni razirjena oziroma prepoznana.
Takoj se nam velikokrat tudi poraja vpraanje, kaj sploh to je? Ali ima lahko
etnina manjina, ker je manjina svoj prostor v umetnosti? Zgodovinski spomin
odgovarja povsem zlahka na to vpraanje. Teave s katero se sooa pripadnica
ali pripadnik te skupnosti so tako globoke in zarte v drubi, da ni mogoe temu
ubeati. Jaz sem Selma Selman je projekt, nerazumljiv vsem kontinentom na
planetu Zemlja, razen evropskemu. Zakaj je temu tako v Evropi in zakaj celo sami
kulturnice in kulturniki, umetnice in umetniki uporabljajo romske prispodobe
kot nekaj slabega e od otroke umetnosti dalje, ni znano in razumljivo. A vendar
se s tem prienja zakoreninjati razlinost do Romov e od otrotva. Po eni strani
se zavedamo moi kulture, po drugi strani pa izrabljamo to mo tako, da sejemo
dalje boleino drugim. Razumeti to boleino in predsodke, ki vplivajo na razvoj
romske due, ni mogoe. Lahko samo predvidevamo oz. kdaj doivimo podobno
boleino, ki pa jo seveda soutno v tistem trenutku ne delimo in se primerjamo z
romsko skupnostjo.
Pomembnost romske sodobne umetnosti je v e posebej lokalnih okoljih kljuna,
saj prebuja tematike, ki jih veinska druba ne prepoznava kot nekaj, kar bi moralo
biti v ospredju. Zato pa je e posebej pomembno v asih kot so danes, e bolj dajti
monost tistim na robu drube, ki so odrinjeni in zaradi slabe ekonomske situacije
prezrti. Ni dvoma, d ne bo tako tudi ostalo, a vendar smo mi dolni poskrbeti, da
se njihov glas iri tako v etabliranih prostorih, kot so galerije, teatri, festivali in
podobno. Upamo pa tudi, da bo pomembnost romske tematike prepoznala kdaj
tudi kakna drava in bo dovolila v imenu nacionalnega grba kdaj predstaviti
tudi pripadnico romske etnine manjine na npr. etablirano umetniko prireditev
kot je npr. Beneki bienale.
Prav tako je naslov Evropske prestolnice Romov da bi bilo izbrano evropsko
mesto center romske kulture eno koledarsko leto takna unikatna vrhunska
prilonost za kulturo in umetnost, kot je Selma Selman.
tefan Simoni

Galerija EPEKA, Koroka cesta 8, Maribor, Slovenija

Katalog je financiran s strani Ministrstva za kulturo Republike Slovenije.

Publisher: Zdruenje EPEKA, so.p.

Texts about works: Selma Selman
Curator text: Dr. Jasmina Tumbas
Translator from English to Romani: Roland Lee, LL.D
Translation: Alma Begic
Design: Sanja Solunac and Chongha Petter Lee
Number:500
Maribor, Slovenia 2016