Selma Selman’s artistic expression empowering Roma women and girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The labour of the Roma community, including Selman’s family, provided the inspiration for the series of works exhibited at the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Born in 1991 in the Roma community village Ruzica, in the northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina, Selman is a trained and accomplished artist whose artwork was recognised regionally, in the European Union and overseas.

The 29-year-old born in the very heart of Bihać’s Roma mahala (neighborhood) established a foundation for education of Roma girls in Bihac in 2017 with 5 children, which later expanded to providing scholarships for 12 and school meals for 45 children in 2019/2020.

Selman’s project ‘Get the Heck Back to School’ dedicated to empowering Roma girls through visual arts provided scholarships for their education, despite traditional Roma communities prioritising boys’ education. Her initiative brought the regular primary school attendance rate for girls in Bihać up from 15% to 95%, saving those girls who were at risk of being forced into arranged marriage.

Having gained widespread recognition in the community, the project impacts on people’s views on the importance of education in improving the quality of life of the community as a whole, not only the children involved.

“Access to most basic human rights like education, work, social and health security is increasingly difficult globally,” Selman said in an interview with UNHCR South Eastern Europe last July. “We need to eradicate the root causes that place obstacle to access to rights for all people.”

“Selma Selman is one of the best examples of how young people can overcome all challenges and difficulties and make their dreams come true,” underlined Sinisa Sesum, Head of the Antenna in Sarajevo of the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe. “Being one of the most prominent young contemporary artist of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Selma did not forget her roots, and therefore through her foundation she spares no effort to support a number of young Romani girls and boys to complete their education.”

Following her education in painting at the Fine Arts Academy in Banja Luka, Selman completed her MFA in Transmedia Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, New York. She has exhibited extensively across Europe and the United States and her work is included in numerous international collections. She participated in the FutuRoma Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. In 2021, she was awarded the Rijksakademie residency in Amsterdam.

Developed in collaboration with the curator Amila Ramovic over the course of two years, the conceptual focus of the artist was displayed through the 64 art pieces belonging to her most recent production created for this occasion, spread across the two floors of the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.

The artistic techniques employed by Selman provide a nostalgia of the older traditions of a polymath art ethically synthesising technological and ecological tools to resolve the inherent conflicts of social engagement. The frequent reference to the motif of scrap metal collection and recycling is used by the artist to invoke the audience to question the ways in which we assign value to objects, labour and human beings.

The Catalogue of Monographic Exhibition by Selman was the first of its kind to be translated in Romani language in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The editing and publishing of the Catalogue were supported by UNESCO through its commitment to education as a part of its programme on improved policies, plans and learning opportunities to increase inclusion in education for vulnerable populations as well as the “Re-imagining Education for Marginalized Girls and Boys during and post COVID-19 in Bosnia and Herzegovina” project.

The joint UN project “Reimagining Education for Marginalised Girls and Boys during and post COVID-19 in Bosnia and Herzegovina” launched in March, is funded by the UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, as part of the UN Multi-trust Partner Fund (MPTF). The project is jointly implemented by UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO and UNV with the objective of assisting education governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina in mitigating the effects of COVID-19 in the education sector, while accentuating in particular the assistance to girls’ education and women’s empowerment.