Selim Ben Cheikh (b. 1979) is a Tunisian artist whose practice is interdisciplinary, extending across photography, painting, video, installation, and experimental material processes.
In his work, he explores the relationship between the body, traces and images, with a sustained focus on notions of presence and absence, accumulation, erosion, and resistance. A recurring interest in Ben Cheikh’s practice is how physical forces, such as gravity, pressure, tension, and movement, can be translated into visual expression. He often works with materials such as dust, pigment, and surfaces where traces of actions and bodily gestures become central.
Since the 2010s, his work has increasingly engaged with social and political transformations in Tunisia and the Arab world, particularly in relation to the period following the 2011 revolution. Through subtle, often poetic gestures, he addresses questions of memory, loss, displacement, and identity.
Selim was invited to Fittja during the period when Abir Boukhari, guest curator, was in residence at Residence Botkyrka in the spring and summer of 2016. From this stay emerged the exhibition Övergångar / Transitions, in which Selim participated.
Selim Ben Cheik, Ombyggnad pågår / Construction in progress, installation, Övergångar / Transitions, Botkyrka konsthall 2016. Foto: Luca Garuski
Botkyrka Residence is supported by Botkyrkabyggen.