Art und Weise: Antifragile Body

For this edition of Art und Weise // Ways and Means, artist Selma Selman will perform Letters to Omer (2021-ongoing), and screen two filmed past performances, You Have No Idea (2016-ongoing), and Mercedes Matrix (2019). 

Letters to Omer (2021–ongoing)
Letters to Omer is a lyrical performance in which Selman expresses her intimate feelings and desires to a fictional character named Omer. The performance weaves narratives of femininity, sexuality, and patriarchy with visions of a better world. Through her words, Selman evokes a sense of longing while demanding a self-determined reality.

You Have No Idea (2016-ongoing)
A single sentence repeated thousands of times tests patience, demands obedience and through simplicity finds the universal. In front of the audience, the breakdown of You Have No Idea becomes an individual act for each one. In essence, it expresses the inner world of the artist, but it is not only about her. Selman writes, "The best explanation is that everything that is happening around us is somehow that we 'Have no idea.'"

Mercedes Matrix (2019)
Selman writes: "Mercedes Matrix depicts the performance with my family where we destroying the status symbol of capitalism the Mercedes Benz on Kampnagel Piazza in Hamburg. Through the act of demolishing the valued vehicle we co-opt the mechanisms of performance to transform my family’s manual labor into art. My family has depended on converting metal waste into a resource to support the well being my family. I am utilizing this very same labor by showcasing working bodies earning a living through the realm of contemporary art." 

The evening will close in a discussion with Goethe-Institut New York curator, Zachary B. Feldman, followed by audience Q&A to go deeper into Selman's practice and to ask not just about the work, but about the choices, the obsessions, and what it means to keep addressing someone who never writes back.