Two Jokes Make One Truth focuses on the dominant role of humor as a tool to magnify the meaning of the unfamiliar and invisible in his artistic practice. These days offer platforms for rethinking the presence and use of humor in the fabric of our lives not only in spite but perhaps precisely because of the tensions, contradictions, and outright failures that surround us. Humor surprises and grabs our attention, and that is precisely why artists employ it... and what better place to start from but the self, and the body of work will include a variety of self-portraits. It will present how in Selmani’s work humor works as a captivating mode of expression, (trans) national cultural product, and topic for discussion, despite its levity. With biting irony, humor, and an outspoken and provocative critical attitude, the artist speaks in metaphors and allegories as he questions the certainty of existing conditions and situations, authoritarian structures, and existing taboos. Conceived as a form of continuous cultural study, his recent series investigates the socially shifting landscape(s). Everyday objects, found plastic bags, archive documents, and linguistic phenomena provide points of departure for his work which end up in a diverse format ranging from personal sketches and doodles to installations, demonstrating social processes and historical links, often employing absurdity and humor. As he turns objects and situations into artistic poetry in the form of small and meaningful actions, the work subtly deals with something familiar yet alien, both here and there. Elemental, human, and yet at times difficult to analyze, humor is an entry point into diverse cultures and a strategy to survive within it. Selmani is a storyteller not only with his images of our times but also through his text and irony-filled titles. Humor is the best antidote to any ideology or (pre) imposed categorization and will be served each day of the exhibition.

Text: Lora Sariaslan