
Crossing the Blue Bridge
Curated by Amila Puzić
Röda Sten Konsthall, Göteborg
10 February – 21 April 2024
The exhibition Crossing the Blue Bridge opens Röda Sten Konsthall’s 2024 program, and is Selma Selman’s first solo presentation in Sweden. It is a continuation of a series of previous exhibitions of prominent artists from Southeast Europe – the posttransitional, economically and politically exhausted region surviving on the European margins – and their transnational presence within the broader international contemporary art landscape.
Crossing the Blue Bridge is conceived around Selman’s new performative film of the same name and is based on a memory from her mother’s war experiences in her Bosnian hometown Bihać during 1994. On the day of the ceasefire, her mother and sister went to the city market to sell their belongings and to buy food for the family. But as they were returning home, the driver informed them that he couldn’t take them all the way across the bridge, known as the “Blue Bridge,” as it was entirely covered with human bodies and dog carcasses. Walking across was the only way forward, and to protect her daughter from witnessing the dreadful scene, her mother put one of her hands over her eyes, holding a basket full of food in the other.

Selma Selman, Installation view of Crossing the Blue Bridge, curated by Amila Puzić, Röda Sten Konsthall, Göteborg, 2024












Photo by Hendrik Zeitler