I ask my daughter not to pick each flower she likes. If you find it beautiful, there is no need to possess it momentarily. You can leave it so it grows and its beauty will thrive. Lately I have been allowing myself to pick one flower a day for a project. Holding the daily kill in my hand, we enter the exhibition space. The show is called, Can’t have it all. The artist is present, while on the phone.
Roman Selim Khereddine has a fascination for taxidermy. This is a method to preserve the body of an animal so you can display what the animal looked like when alive. The term comes from the Greek taxis = arrangement, and derma = skin. A taxidermist uses the real skin of an animal over a constructed body frame. In a show I saw before, at the Helmhaus, it was (the horror of) snakes Khereddine collected, now it is a small army of crocodiles he displays.
Roman Selim Khereddine, Can’t have it all, Binz 39, 2022
Image: Sabina Bösch
My ten-year old fearfully asks if we can skip this installation and go watch videos. I immediately understand her concerns. The audience of crocodiles is intimidating, positioned ready to hunt you down. We pass by them quickly so they don’t swallow and devour us. These tensions of primal fear and control, hierarchy and violence in the relation between animals and humans is a palpable theme throughout.
Khereddine tells us three tales in his videos, for the most part set in Morocco, the country where his father was born. He has a tender way of skillfully weaving his cosmos of dialectics. Also he is fascinated by cultural codes. Roman Selim blends his memories or knowledge of film, folklore, philosophy, literature or diplomacy into captivating layered histories while consciously and actively trying to make sense of customs, traditions and sensitivities. Still maintaining a certain lightness and humor.
Roman Selim Khereddine, Can’t have it all, Binz 39, 2022
Image: Sabina Bösch
The three films, 20 minutes each, are from a curious observer’s perspective and are not staged, humble, sometimes absurd and poetic. In SCULPTORS we visit a taxidermy collection in an unnamed location. The dream of the owner is to stuff the rare black and white Chinese panda. His dream is compromised since the panda is vulnerable to extinction. Yet he finds a way to construct his giant panda without having the essential skin of a panda. Inventively he uses two brown bear skins instead, one darkest brown, the other one he bleaches for the white parts. This must be a peculiar individual. In Enter a country, leave a country, we feel the trial of connection as being displaced while trying to maintain roots in the country of one’s ancestors. Through the search for a grandfather’s grave in a Moroccan cemetery we learn about the cultural codes of the place. We wade through water and feel in between. The third video, called Derb Sultan Symphony, shows the life of dogs and their changing owners at a Casablanca dog market. The price of a dog depends on its ability to be aggressive and attack. Cute dogs will not sell at a high price here. My ten-year old shakes her head and opposes. The rough and rude behavior of the owners with the too small sized house slippers, that they all seem to have on their feet, is that of a harsh and violent dominion.
Roman Selim Khereddine, Can’t have it all, Binz 39, 2022
Image: Sabina Bösch
All the works in the show seem interconnected like a weave. The clogs in the photograph Pacing the Cell show the ‘plenty’ of ‘studio’ shoes of the artist neatly placed in a grid. This somehow reminds me of the contrast with shoes outside a mosque, seldom in a grid and not often displayed to be photographed.
His arrangements moved us, leaving us with no alternative but to return the gift we received. The flower of the day I gave to Roman Selim.
Roman Selim Khereddine, Can't have it all, Stiftung BINZ39, 21. Oktober–19. November 2022