Selin Davasse, “ Corpus Iuris Artis: III.The Appeal ”, moot court at Amstgericht

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 questions, codifies, institutionalizes and puts on trial the art world’s representational claims and ethical posturing. In a playful attempt at imagining legal norms, instruments and procedures, Davasse speculates on how these tools and processes would be implemented in common art world scenarios. As performer and representative, the artist adopts the roles of the various parties involved: she prosecutes and is prosecuted; testifies and is testified about; judges and is judged.

Commissioned by Pickle Bar as part of the performance series “She-Wailers” Corpus Iuris Artis: III.The Appeal plays out the proceedings at an imaginary Court of Appeals. An actual courtroom –a literal palace of justice – hosts (or is taken hostage by) supreme justices of the art world, all played by Davasse, who discuss various interpretations of the laws prescribed by Codex Iuris Artis—Statutes for Speculative and Situated Ethics in the Art World. The morality of the laws and the procedural fairness of past trials are argued. What appears to be an abstract and theoretical undertaking for the justices involved, is to the defendants the only thing standing between them and their residency sentence to be served at The Reflective Institution for Art Professionals (RIAP)—colloquially known as ArtJail. 

Belonging to the same fictional universe as Corpus Iuris Artis: I. The Deposition (curated by soft power at Mouches Volantes, Cologne, 28.6.–9.8.2025) and Corpus Iuris Artis: II. The Hearing, a first time solo exhibition by performance artist Davasse, curated by and presented at  soft power (30.8-14.9.2025), Corpus Iuris Artis: III.The Appeal marks the end of the three-part cycle.

Supported by Förderung durch die Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt  des Landes Berlin.