Massinissa Selmani

Telling the present – THIS COURSE WILL NOT TAKE PLACE

3–15 August 2020

Détour du lendemain, 2019, graphite and coloured pencil on paper, 78 x 112 cm

Media
Drawing, archives and all creative forms

Location
Hohensalzburg Fortress

Teaching language
English (the teacher also speaks French, Berber and North African Arabic)

What to bring
Empty sketch book, personal sketchbook or notes, favourite working tools/personal working material

Requirements
None

Maximum number of participants
20

Co-teacher
Hannah Bruckmüller

Participation fee
€ 720.– (€ 560.–)

The aim of the course is to explore narration and storytelling based on drawing as a means of observation, investigation and reflection. It will be built up according to the idea of the survey as a working method.

We will be interested in a story that can take the form of testimony, speeches, oral transmission, even speculation and rumour, and we will attempt a translation through artistic practices. For this, the drawing will be our starting point for all investigations; together we will try to use all its resources to develop ideas and put them into shape. It can be notes, sketches, maps, illustrations, press cartoons, etc. gleaned from various sources: personal notes or sketches, newspapers, books, films, internet, readings... From all these elements we will develop individual or group projects. Although drawing is the starting point, the final shape will be open to all artistic forms, be that drawing, installation, reading, performance or anything else.

Among the trails of reflection envisaged around tales, there are those of architecture, news items, oral tradition and other trails arising from the group’s proposals. This course is intended for students, artists or amateurs from all disciplines who are sensitive to these issues. It is not necessary to have a basis in drawing.

Massinissa Selmani, born in Algiers in 1980, lives and works in Tours (FR). Massinissa Selmani’s work finds its origin in socio-political issues, taken from the press cuttings he has been collecting for a number of years. It is through confrontation and juxtaposition, without a logical coherence between these real-life elements, that Massinissa creates enigmatic and ambiguous scenes, underlining the ironic, even tragic character of the absurd and strange situations represented in his drawings. Through an experimental approach to drawing and animation, Massinissa Selmani showcases the documentary dimension to his drawing practice, playing on the boundary between reality and unreality, comedy and tragedy, so typical of his work. (see www.samartprojects.org/ massinissa-selmani-2/)

Solo exhibitions
2019 Le calme de l’idée fixe, ccc od (centre de création contemporaine olivier debré), Tours. Choses fortuites, Château d’Oiron, Plaine-et-Vallées (FR). 2018 Ce qui coule n’a pas de fin. SAM Art Projects Prize, Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Episodes. École européenne supérieure d’art de Bretagne, Lorient (FR). Poles apart, Museum of African Art, Belgrade. 2017 Les choses que vous faites m’entourent, Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, Paris. Même dans la pierre, il y a du sable, Galerie de l’Etrave, Thonon-Les-Bains (FR). Le vent ne veut jamais rester dehors, Selma Feriani Gallery, Tunis.

Group exhibitions
2019 Dimension supplémentaire, Salle St-Martin, Souillac (FR). Signes personnages, ccc od, Tours. Waiting for Omar Gatlato, Wallach Art Gallery, New York, NY (US). Drawing Biennial 2019, The Drawing Room, London. 2018 Inhabiting the Mediterranean, Institut Valenci. d’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia (ES). No Looking Back, Okay?, Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor (SI). 2018 A Slice through the World: Contemporary Artists’ Drawings, Modern Art Oxford (UK). Drawing Lab: Cinéma d’été, Drawing Lab, Paris. To live in the mediterranean, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia (ES). Gold, Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, Tokyo. No Looking Back, Okay?, Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor (SI). 2017 Marcher dans le réve d’un autre, Biennale d’architecture d’Orléans, Frac Centre, Orléans (FR). Tamawuj, 13th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah (AE). Drawing Biennial 2017, The Drawing Room, London. I want! I want!: Art & Technology, Birmingham Museum and Art, Birmingham (UK). Where the f*ck is my sock, Akinci Gallery, Amsterdam.

Publications
Ce qui coule n’a pas de fin, With the support of SAM Art Projects Prize, Paris 2018.
Poles Apart, With the support of the Museum on African Art, Belgrade 2018.
Digital Monograph, Naima Editions, Paris 2016.
Bleu comme une orange, Prix Art [ ] Collector, Paris 2016.

www.massinissa-selmani.com