The work of Mercedes and Selim is at once deeply connected and profoundly distant.
Here, figuration and abstraction are not opposed or clearly distinguished; instead, they merge within a shared field where painting itself becomes both the central question and the primary subject. Rather than serving representation or image-making alone, painting operates as a space of inquiry, constantly negotiating its own possibilities.

Everything is in tension; nothing stays in place. Rather, an internal narration through painting happens, where shapes shift between each other's works, elements move, coexist, and create third parties and new spaces, even if the process of painting is quite different.

The vulnerabilities of one are counterbalanced by the strengths of the other, and vice versa. What appears unresolved in one practice finds resonance in the other, creating a dynamic exchange.