Selmani's work aims to create drawn forms mingling a documentary approach with fictional constructions and animations, while taking as its point of departure contemporary political and social issues from press cuttings.
Through confrontation, juxtaposition and even the superposition of actual elements, whose contexts have systematically been concealed, the artist creates enigmatic, ambiguous scenes unlikely to happen in reality, bearing witness to the absurdity of human behaviours and always balances these depictions within the realms of the comical and the tragic, or architecture as an instrument of power.
By arranging large white spaces and playing on effects of transparency and reserve, he invites us to fill in the gaps, to question the way we remember and write history, beyond any linear structure. In this way, he also raises questions about the production process but also the circulation and diffusion of media images, as well as the way they influence our perception of historical and current events.
About the artist
Massinissa Selmani (1980, Algiers). After studying computer science in Algeria, Massinissa Selmani graduated from the École supérieure des beaux-arts in Tours, France.
Selmani's work has subsequently been hailed by a special mention of the jury at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. In 2016, He received the Art Collector Prize (Paris) and the Sam Art Projects Prize for contemporary art (Paris).
Lastly, his production is also part of public collections such as the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon and the Frac Centre (France). Currently he lives and works between Tours and Tizi-Ouzou (Algeria).
