Using press photographs, Massinissa Selmani constructs 'drawn forms' in the surrealist mode of collage, somewhere between the tragic and the comic. These are "unfathomable places", as he describes them, where the absurd is never far away. His work can be seen at the Centre Pompidou as part of the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2023. His work presented in Paris is inspired by photography and press cartoons, always with the idea of recognising familiar gestures and postures.
To understand Massinissa Selmani's work, you have to get up close and 'enter' the drawing: "I ask visitors to make an effort. I find the spectacular aspect frustrating, because once you're past the astonishment stage, there's a risk that there won't be much left. It's true that my works don't say much at first glance. Sometimes people think there's a hidden meaning in some of my drawings, but there isn't."
Massinissa Selmani will also be taking part in the Taipei Biennale, from 18 November to 24 March 2024, and in December he will be exhibiting in Algeria, at the Rhizome gallery, and in February 2024 at Jane Lombard, who represents him in New York.