Selma Selman

The work of artist and activist Selma Selman, born in 1991 into a Roma community in Bihać, Bosnia, draws heavily from her personal experiences to inform her internationally-recognised artistic practice. Selman is known for creating works that challenge stereotypes and critique oppressive systems. Her Roma heritage and her family’s background in collecting and recycling scrap metal deeply influence her art, particularly her use of industrial materials and references to labour, but also her personal history, her family background, issues of child marriage and women’s role in Roma communities and education. Selman’s aim is to break down the prejudice which keeps pushing down her community to the lowest common denominator, denying its right to self-expression. Selma is the founder of Get The Heck To School, an organisation that aims to empower Roma girls around the world facing poverty and social exclusion by encouraging them to pursue their studies.
Selma Selman is currently based between Amsterdam, New York and Bihać. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2014 from Banja Luka University’s Department of Painting. In 2018, she graduated from Syracuse University, New York with a Master of Fine Arts in Transmedia, Visual and Performing Arts. She was a resident of Rijksakademie from 2021 to 2023 and exhibited at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2025), Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2024), Gropius Bau and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2023), Autostrada Biennale, Prizren (2023), documenta fifteen, Kassel (2022), Manifesta 14, Prishtina (2022), National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo (2021), Queens Museum, New York (2019), Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin (2017), among others. Last but not least, she was one of the exhibitors of the Roma Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

www.selmanselma.com

I have to do art, it comes from my guts. I do art because I feel the urge to express something through text, painting or performance. In my practice, I turn everything that is private, sometimes intimate to me, into public so that I can communicate with people12. I feel that my role is to share my experience and to communicate my thoughts the best I can. For me, to do art is to communicate with any kind of audience, and my audience is mostly everyone, from kids, underprivileged groups, minorities, people who do not have a full understanding of what art is, until highly educated people from the art world3. Indeed, I feel privileged to be accepted in the art world, to have the space to communicate my ideas, to be able to work and be paid for it.

Art is the space in which I feel safe4. When I make large paintings or drawings5, I need to have a physical space, of course. But my other space is this mental space of mine, the process of thinking or making something, that no one can enter. When I’m working with topics such as labour, economy of marriage or other heavy topics, I do feel scared sometimes if I’m exposing too much, but I have my own strategy to deal with this. Regardless of how private the subject of my work is, I make it universal, so it does not only speak about me, but about us. In my performance You Have No Idea6, I really put myself out there and exhaust myself emotionally. I am vulnerable, but I’m also the most powerful in this position because I have the guts to shout to the public that they have no idea. I manage to shift vulnerability into power. Many of my works are like that, because when you come from a difficult environment that doesn’t allow you to grow from many sides, neither in the Roma nor the Bosnian community, then you use what you have. And what I have is this experience, my past, but also my present. 

That’s when you use art as a tool, not only as a statement. I never victimize myself or other people that I work with, on the contrary. In my recent project entitled Motherboards78, I’m destroying computer parts with my family, who become part of the work. Here we all have the chance to do what we do best: recycling gold or metal. In this delegated performance, I make sure that everyone figures equally and gets paid for doing their job. 

Nowadays, I am inspired by artists such as Adrian Piper, Sigalit Landau, Mona Hatoum and many more feminist artists, then from the video field, Michael Snow. Nevertheless, my imagination is mostly triggered by everyday, invisible situations that do not seem to be potential material for artistic thinking. Sometimes, this is one word, such as superposition for example. From there, I create sequences of work, performances and drawings. I’m also very much inspired by life in my hometown, it is an open book for so many ideas. I speak with women, they tell me their stories, and with my mom, who recounted how she crossed a bridge during the war, and that became the subject of my last film9. These are the moments which I really appreciate, enjoy and which I can develop more thoughts from. 

To collaborate with my family is the powerhouse of my practice. My father was the biggest catalyst for my ideas, we talked, brainstormed, developed projects together. He sent me photos of many metal elements, cars or grapples1011,that are, in themselves, already artworks for me, yet they are invisible, without value for so many people. My ability to sense the potential of undervalued objects comes from my childhood where I was invisible myself, from these many years during which I kept making myself visible. I see value in broken computers, broken cars or catalytic converters. I find gold in black dust12. 

I really work a lot but I am not sacrificing my time only so that I can do the labour of art. Every day I write thoughts down, I read, I watch something interesting. I accumulate ideas, so one day they become an artwork. I balance between having a life and an art life, communication with my family and being alone. Solitude and taking care of my body are both very important parts of my everyday life as an artist. There are my spaces for mental health.

I understand that I have a certain fame in the art world. For me, to be famous is not a finality, it is a tool which, if used well, can bring change. I use fame as a possibility, a potential for action. I’m the only renowned artist in my city, and in our Roma settlement, we do finally have one art institution now, which I created, and where people, Roma and non-Roma would come and enjoy art together. To be a woman, an artist and to originate from the place I came from is a tremendous challenge13. Firstly, to be a female artist today is a challenge in itself, not to speak of the place where I was born. Even in Sarajevo which is another perspective, there is no infrastructure to be a female artist. In Bosnia and Eastern Europe as a whole, it’s an enormous difficulty. The art world was unfair to so many women artists, and sill today they are often excluded when they become mothers. 

Regarding feminism, I am mostly interested in women who are not educated and do not have the tools we have. I’m thinking of my mom, who is a feminist to some extent because she is able defend herself. But she is not in a position to take decisions, neither are my sisters. The world was not fair to them. The world is now fair to some of us, because we do have the experiences of past women who had to go through all these hardships so that we realise the necessity for us to find our position in the world14. 

Although women are very strong in Eastern Europe, its highly patriarchal society doesn’t really respect them as individuals. In this system, to have a career and be a mother at the same time is still a real struggle for many women. The only way for me to succeed was to leave this place in order to become what I am today. But many women artists stayed there. Their work functions and is visible in Bosnia and neighbouring countries, however, they never achieved international recognition. Not everyone has the courage to leave, because, as I say in my letters to Omer, you need to have the courage to be disliked.15 Once you learn to be disliked, you do not care about anything else; you will always have people who like or do not like your work. And you do not do art to be liked.

The statement was written in collaboration with curator Róna Kopeczky (2024).

1Selma Selman: Mercedes 310, 2014, giclée print on Hahnemühle rag baryt paper, 2 pcs: 50 x 70 cm each.
Courtesy of the artist and acb Gallery, Budapest.
2Selma Selman: Mercedes 310, 2014, giclée print on Hahnemühle rag baryt paper, 2 pcs: 50 x 70 cm each.
Courtesy of the artist and acb Gallery, Budapest.
3Selma Selman: Painting on metal, 2020/2021, acrylic on scrap metal, 62 x 53 x 4 cm.
courtesy of the artist and acb Gallery, Budapest, private collection, Washington. Photo by Dávid Tóth.
4Selma Selman: Painting on metal, 2020/2021, acrylic on scrap metal, 2 pcs: 107 x 33 x 33 cm each.
Courtesy of the artist and acb Gallery, Budapest, private collection, Vienna. Photo by Dávid Tóth.
5Selma Selman: Superpositional Intersectionalism, 2019, colour crayon and pencil on paper, 70 x 800 cm.
Courtesy of the artist and acb Gallery, Budapest. photo by Dávid Tóth.
6 Selma Selman: You Have No Idea, 2020, performance on Election Day, 2020, Washington D.C., film still of video documentation, 4’58”. Courtesy of the artist.
7Selma Selman: Motherboards, 2023, performance at Krass Festival, Hamburg, film stills of video documentation, 9’38”. Video by Mario Ilić and Tamika Leah Odhiambo, edited by Chonga Peter Lee. Courtesy of the artist.
8Selma Selman: Motherboards, 2023, installation view at acb Gallery, Budapest. Photo by Dávid Tóth.
9Selma Selman: Crossing the Blue Bridge, 2024, film still from 16 mm film transfered to digital video, 27’15”.
Courtesy of the artist.
10Selma Selman: Painting on metal, 2020/2021, acrylic on scrap metal, 266 x 135 x 55 cm.
Courtesy of the artist and acb Gallery, Budapest, private collection, Zagreb. Photo by Dávid Tóth.
11Selma Selman: Flowers of Life, 2024, installation view at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.
Photo by Cesar Hatum.
12Selma Selman: Painting on metal, 2023, oil on scrap metal, 200 x 100 cm. Courtesy of the artist and acb Gallery, Budapest, private collection, Budapest. Photo by Dávid Tóth.
13Selma Selman: Untitled, 2023, installation view at Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin.
Photo by Eike Walkenhorst.
14Selma Selman: Untitled, 2020, acrylic on scrap metal, 66 x 50,5 x 4,5 cm.
Courtesy of the artist and acb Gallery, Budapest. Photo by Dávid Tóth.
15Selma Selman: Untitled, 2024, oil on scrap metal, 133 x 150 x 25 cm.
Courtesy of the artist and acb Gallery, Budapest. Photo by Dávid Tóth.

Rad umjetnice i aktivistkinje Selme Selman, rođene 1991. u romskoj zajednici u Bihaću, Bosna i Hercegovina, u velikoj mjeri proizlazi iz njenih ličnih iskustava, oblikujući njenu međunarodno priznatu umjetničku praksu. Selman je poznata po stvaranju radova koji osporavaju stereotipe i kritikuju represivne sisteme. Njeno romsko naslijeđe i porodična istorija sakupljanja i reciklaže starog metala snažno utiču na njen umjetnički izraz, posebno kroz upotrebu industrijskih materijala i referenci na rad, ali i kroz teme lične istorije, porodične prošlosti, dječijih brakova te uloge žena u romskim zajednicama i obrazovanju. Cilj njenog rada je razbijanje predrasuda koje njenu zajednicu neprestano guraju na marginu, uskraćujući joj pravo na samoizražavanje.
Selman je osnivačica organizacije Get The Heck To School, koja ima za cilj osnaživanje romskih djevojčica širom svijeta koje se suočavaju sa siromaštvom i društvenom isključenošću, podstičući ih da nastave svoje obrazovanje.
Trenutno živi i radi na relaciji Amsterdam – New York – Bihać. Diplomirala je 2014. godine na Odsjeku za slikarstvo Univerziteta u Banjoj Luci, a 2018. magistrirala na Univerzitetu Syracuse u New Yorku, na odsjeku za transmediju, vizuelne i performativne umjetnosti. Bila je rezidentkinja Rijksakademie od 2021. do 2023. godine, a izlagala je u Stedelijk Museumu, Amsterdam (2025), Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2024), Gropius Bau i Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2023), Autostrada Biennalu, Prizren (2023), documenta fifteen, Kassel (2022), Manifesta 14, Priština (2022), Nacionalnoj galeriji Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo (2021), Queens Museumu, New York (2019), Maxim Gorki Theateru, Berlin (2017) i mnogim drugim institucijama. Također, bila je jedna od izlagačica u Romskoj paviljonskoj postavci na Venecijanskom bijenalu 2019. godine.

www.selmanselma.com

Moram stvarati umjetnost, ta potreba dolazi iz moje utrobe. Bavim se umjetnošću jer osjećam potrebu da izrazim nešto kroz tekst, slikanje ili performans. U svom radu sve što je privatno, ponekad i intimno, pretvaram u javno kako bih mogla komunicirati s ljudima12. Osjećam da mi je uloga podijeliti svoje iskustvo i prenijeti svoje misli najbolje što mogu. Za mene je umjetnost način komunikacije s bilo kojom publikom, a moja publika su svi – od djece, marginaliziranih skupina, manjina, ljudi koji nemaju puno razumijevanja o umjetnosti, do visoko obrazovanih ljudi iz svijeta umjetnosti3. Doista se osjećam privilegovanom što sam prihvaćena u umjetničkom svijetu, što imam prostor da izražavam svoje ideje, što mogu raditi i biti plaćena za to.

Umjetnost je prostor u kojem se osjećam sigurno4. Kada radim velike slike ili crteže5, naravno da mi treba fizički prostor. Ali moj drugi prostor je onaj mentalni – proces razmišljanja ili stvaranja nečega, prostor u koji nitko ne može ući. Kada radim s temama poput posla, ekonomije, braka ili drugim teškim temama, ponekad osjećam strah izlažem li se previše, ali imam svoju strategiju kako se nositi s tim. Bez obzira na to koliko je tema mog rada privatna, činim je univerzalnom, tako da ne govori samo o meni, već o nama. U svom performansu You Have No Idea6 doista se izlažem i emocionalno iscrpljujem. Tada sam tako ranjiva, ali istovremeno i najsnažnija u toj poziciji, jer imam hrabrost reći publici da nemaju pojma. Uspijevam ranjivost preokrenuti u moć. Mnogi moji radovi su takvi, jer kada dolazite iz teškog okruženja koje vam ne dopušta da rastete, da se razvijate – ni u romskoj ni u bosanskoj zajednici – onda koristite ono što imate. A ono što ja imam jest moje iskustvo, moja prošlost, ali i moja sadašnjost.

Tada umjetnost koristite kao alat, a ne samo kao izjavu. Nikada ne prikazujem sebe ni druge ljude s kojima radim kao žrtve – naprotiv. U svom posljednjem projektu Motherboards78, uništavam dijelove kompjutera sa svojom porodicom, koja time postaje dio rada. Ovdje svi imamo priliku raditi ono što najbolje znamo: reciklirati zlato ili metal. U tom delegiranom performansu osiguravam da svi budu jednako uključeni i da budu plaćeni za svoj rad.

Danas me inspirišu umjetnici poput Adriana Pipera, Sigalit Landau, Mone Hatoum i mnogih feminističkih umjetnica, a iz polja videa Michael Snow. Ipak, moju maštu najviše pokreću svakodnevne, nevidljive situacije koje na prvi pogled ne izgledaju kao potencijalni materijal za umjetničko promišljanje. Ponekad je to samo jedna riječ, poput “superpozicija”, iz koje zatim stvaram niz radova, performansa i crteža. Također me jako inspiriše život u mom rodnom gradu, on je otvorena knjiga puna ideja. Razgovaram sa ženama, slušam njihove priče, pričam s majkom, koja mi je jednom ispričala kako je prelazila most tokom rata – i to je postalo tema mog posljednjeg filma9. To su trenuci koje zaista cijenim, u kojima uživam i iz kojih mogu razvijati svoje misli.

Suradnja s mojom obitelji srž je moje umjetničke prakse. Moj otac bio je najveći katalizator mojih ideja – razgovarali smo, smišljali projekte zajedno. Slikao mi je razne metalne predmete, aute i hvataljke1011, koje su same po sebi već umjetnička djela, ali su za mnoge ljude nevidljive i bezvrijedne. Moja sposobnost da prepoznam potencijal podcijenjenih predmeta dolazi iz mog djetinjstva, kada sam i sama bila nevidljiva, iz mnogih godina u kojima sam se trudila učiniti sebe vidljivom. Vidim vrijednost u razbijenim kompjuterima, slomljenim automobilima i katalizatorima. Nalazim zlato u crnoj prašini12.

Radim puno, ali ne žrtvujem svoje vrijeme samo kako bih obavljala rad umjetnosti. Svaki dan zapisujem misli, čitam, gledam nešto zanimljivo. Skupljam ideje, tako da jednog dana postanu umjetnička djela. Balansiram između privatnog života i umjetničkog života, između komunikacije s obitelji i samoće. Osama i briga o vlastitom tijelu jednako su važni dijelovi mog svakodnevnog života kao umjetnice. To su moji prostori mentalnog zdravlja.

Razumijem da imam određenu slavu u umjetničkom svijetu. No, za mene slava nije cilj, već alat koji, ako se pravilno iskoristi, može donijeti promjene. Slavu koristim kao mogućnost, potencijal za djelovanje. Ja sam jedina poznata umjetnica u svom gradu, i u našem romskom naselju sada napokon imamo jednu umjetničku instituciju koju sam osnovala, gdje dolaze i Romi i ne-Romi kako bi zajedno uživali u umjetnosti. Biti žena, umjetnica i dolaziti iz sredine iz koje dolazim ogroman je izazov. Biti umjetnica danas samo po sebi je izazov, a kamoli kad ste rođeni ondje gdje sam ja13. Čak i u Sarajevu, koje nudi drugačiju perspektivu, ne postoji infrastruktura za žene umjetnice. U Bosni i cijeloj istočnoj Europi to je golema teškoća. Umjetnički svijet bio je nepravedan prema mnogim umjetnicama, a još uvijek ih često isključuju kada postanu majke.

Što se tiče feminizma, najviše me zanimaju žene koje nisu obrazovane i nemaju alate koje mi imamo. Mislim na svoju majku, koja je do neke mjere feministkinja jer se zna odbraniti, ali nije u poziciji donositi odluke – kao ni moje sestre. Svijet prema njima nije bio pravedan. Svijet je sada pravedniji prema nekima od nas jer imamo iskustva žena prije nas, koje su morale proći kroz sve te poteškoće kako bismo mi danas shvatili koliko je važno pronaći svoje mjesto u svijetu14.

Iako su žene u istočnoj Europi vrlo jake, visoko patrijarhalno društvo i dalje ih ne poštuje kao pojedince. U tom sustavu imati karijeru i istovremeno biti majka i dalje je ogroman izazov za mnoge žene. Jedini način da uspijem bio je da odem iz tog mjesta kako bih postala ono što jesam danas. No, mnoge umjetnice su ostale. Njihov rad funkcioniše i vidljiv je u Bosni i susjednim zemljama, ali nikada nisu stekle međunarodno priznanje. Ne može svatko skupiti hrabrost da ode, jer, kao što pišem u svojim pismima Omeru, morate imati hrabrosti da budete nevoljeni15. Kad jednom naučite biti nevoljeni, više vas ništa ne dira – uvijek će biti onih koji vole i ne vole vaš rad. A umjetnost ne radite da biste bili voljeni.

Izjava je napisana u suradnji sa kustosicom Róna Kopeczky (2024).

1Selma Selman: Mercedes 310, 2014, giclée print na Hahnemühle rag baryt papiru, 2 komada: 50 x 70 cm svaki. Ljubaznošću umjetnice i acb Gallery, Budimpešta.
2Selma Selman: Mercedes 310, 2014, giclée print na Hahnemühle rag baryt papiru, 2 komada: 50 x 70 cm svaki. Ljubaznošću umjetnice i acb Gallery, Budimpešta.
3Selma Selman: Slikanje na metalu, 2020/2021, akril na starom metalu, 62 x 53 x 4 cm.
Ljubaznošću umjetnice i acb Gallery, Budimpešta, privatna kolekcija, Washington. Foto: Dávid Tóth.
4Selma Selman: Slikanje na metalu, 2020/2021, akril na starom metalu, 2 komada: 107 x 33 x 33 cm svaki.
Ljubaznošću umjetnice i acb Gallery, Budimpešta, privatna kolekcija, Beč. Foto: Dávid Tóth.
5Selma Selman: Superpozicioni intersekcionalizam, 2019, bojica i olovka na papiru, 70 x 800 cm.

6Selma Selman: Nemaš pojma, 2020, performans na dan izbora, 2020, Washington D.C., kadar iz video dokumentacije, 4’58”.
Ljubaznošću umjetnice.
7Selma Selman: Matične ploče, 2023, performans na Krass Festivalu, Hamburg, kadrovi iz video dokumentacije, 9’38”.
Video: Mario Ilić i Tamika Leah Odhiambo, montaža: Chonga Peter Lee.
Ljubaznošću umjetnice.
8Selma Selman: Matične ploče, 2023, postavka u acb Gallery, Budimpešta.
foto: Dávid Tóth.
9Selma Selman: Prelazeći plavi most, 2024, kadar iz 16 mm filma prenesenog u digitalni video, 27’15”.
Ljubaznošću umjetnice.
10Selma Selman: Slikanje na metalu, 2020/2021, akril na starom metalu, 266 x 135 x 55 cm.
ljubaznošću umjetnice i acb Gallery, Budimpešta, privatna kolekcija, Zagreb. Foto: Dávid Tóth.
11Selma Selman: Cvjetovi života, 2024, postavka u Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt.
foto: Cesar Hatum.
12Selma Selman: Slikanje na metalu, 2023, ulje na starom metalu, 200 x 100 cm.
Ljubaznošću umjetnice i acb Gallery, Budimpešta, privatna kolekcija, Budimpešta. Foto: Dávid Tóth.
13Selma Selman: Bez naziva, 2023, postavka u Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin.
Foto: Eike Walkenhorst.
14Selma Selman: Bez naziva, 2020, akril na starom metalu, 66 x 50,5 x 4,5 cm.
Ljubaznošću umjetnice i acb Gallery, Budimpešta. Foto: Dávid Tóth.
15Selma Selman: Bez naziva, 2024, ulje na starom metalu, 133 x 150 x 25 cm.
Ljubaznošću umjetnice i acb Gallery, Budimpešta. Foto: Dávid Tóth.