Based on a fictional legal system and its foundational penal code, Corpus Iuris Artis unfolds as an exhibition and performance cycle, in which Selin Davasse presents a new body of works questioning, codifying, institutionalizing, and putting on trial what constitutes ethical artistic or curatorial practice today. This “body of law” for the art world lays out offenses with varying scope and severity, as well as possible defenses. Approaching the mechanisms and power dynamics within the art world in a humorous and self-critical tone, the project addresses issues of social responsibility, accountability and (self-)censorship – while equally nodding to the performative nature of law and the frail state of legal systems. In a playful attempt at imagining which legal norms, instruments and procedures could bring about art world justice, Davasse speculates on how these tools and processes would be implemented in common professional scenarios. As the artist adopts the roles of the various parties involved – prosecution and defense, interrogator and witness, jury and judge – she challenges our own respective positions; our sincerity and truthfulness, complicity and liability. After all, ignorantia iuris non excusat (“ignorance of the law does not absolve”).
Corpus Iuris Artis: I. The Deposition at Mouches Volantes plays out the first step of this imagined legal process: A pre-trial discovery process where evidence about alleged offenses, such as “Deceitful and Depraved Virtue Signaling” or “Deliberate and Depraved Tokenization”, is gathered. Within this rhetorical mirror cell, witnesses are questioned by both the prosecution and defense teams, simultaneously embodied by Davasse in three video works and a performance. While the “deposition” directly refers to terminology from the US justice system – and its notorious influence on pop-cultural adaptations of “courtroom drama” –, the term more broadly describes the action of deposing, or dethroning, someone. A hint at the possible consequences that this initial round of questioning may bring for the accused as the cycle further unfolds, if no arbitration is possible and no plea deal can be reached.
Selin Davasse’s exhibition Corpus Iuris Artis: II. The Hearing opens on 28.8.2025 at soft power in Berlin and runs through 14.9.2025. Her performance Corpus Iuris Artis: III. The Appeal will be presented in September 2025 with Pickle Bar in Berlin in the frame of the Berlin Art Week Featured programme (10.–14.9.2025).
As part of the exhibition at Mouches Volantes, a new edition will be available:
Selin Davasse
Codex Iuris Artis § 213.2. DELIBERATE AND DEPRAVED TOKENIZATION
29,7 x 21 cm, ed. of 20 + 2 AP