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“Dance”, “Belly”, “The”
Selma Selman
“Dance”, “Belly”, “The”
Selma Selman
(2017)
None
This video plays on the absurd exoticization of an Oriental dance attributed to the women of the Roma people. "Haj nam malo plesi" or - "Come, belly dance a bit for us" is a phrase often repeated to women of my ethnicity. Speakers of this phrase assume that because I am a Roma woman, I must be able to execute this specific dance using my belly.
In this work, I perform the belly dance without showing my belly.Instead, I focus the viewer on the three peripheral elements of the belly dance - ass, breasts and hands. These elements - ass, breasts and hands - I shake for the primary audience of contemporary art -politicians, proletariat and bourgeoisie leaders.