Here is a selection of (borrowing Stephen Wright's term) 1:1 artworks.
A 1:1 work is not a representation or a scaled-down model of a potentially useful thing; it is the thing itself. It has a real-world activity with a real-world use and at the same time it is an artistic proposition.
They seem redundant and are almost invisible as artworks because they look like a product, or an existing service. That's why I am here, as Salim Bayri, as the narrator to speak about what is beyond their immediate function.
1: Open Mat RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Open Mat RRRRRRR happened every monday and thursday at my studio A79 at the Rijksakademie residency in Amsterdam during the years 2018-2019. I invited all fellow residents to practice Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guiding them with my humble experience practicing the martial arts. My studio was used to lay tatamis and practice basic techniques of mobility, passing guard and submissions. The rules of BJJ were applied as accurately as possible with no artistic twist.
It was a way for me to find use to my studio space that felt like an excess to what I am used to as well as to practice being together in the environment of the residency. In BJJ: rules, strenght, winner, looser, hierarchy, penalities and limits are clear and consented. In art contexts, all of those are more blurry. I wanted to bring this clarity inside my studio to embody the contrast together with my fellow colleagues.
The practice ended with the complications of covid. All the participants received a diploma signed by me and the Rijksakademie.
2: Bissara Salim
Bissara Salim is a food product I developed myself that I distribute and sell online and in shops. It is a popular moroccan recipe made with fava beans and split peas I carefully turn into an instant soup in powder form for convenience.
Frustrated with the uncertainty of funding chasing, Bissara Salim is a way to create an economy and gain more 'bite in the real' into economic reality, logistics and trade. I am also interested in what it means to preserve culture, office culture, instant food, abundance of water in the netherlands and draught in morocco, hustle culture and the new connections it gives me with the global moroccan diaspora.
Order online here: https://bissarasalim.myshopify.com/