2024–2025

For the sixth edition of ‘Oemoemenoe’, artists Salim Bayri and Ghita Skali have developed a project that explores social systems and the dynamics within communities in Zeeland. As part of the project, Bayri and Skali designed a doormat, which was produced in an edition of 250. These doormats were secretly distributed without any sender in the streets surrounding the Oostkerk in Middelburg on the night of April 23, 2025.

In the days that followed, local residents informed the Zeeland press, and rumors about the “doormat mystery” began to circulate.

With this everyday object, Bayri and Skali sought to unravel a web of gossip and social dynamics within Zeeland’s communities. The project explored ideas about connection, social roles, and the influence of advertising by referring to the metaphor of a doorway. After secretly distributing the doormats, Vleeshal informed the local website and Instagram account Wij zijn De Stad, which reports on all the latest news in and around Middelburg, about the mysterious event, to spark rumors.

On June 26, 2025, it was revealed that the doormats were part of ‘Oemoemenoe’, Vleeshal’s local nomadic program. Residents who received a mat were anonymously invited to the event. On the day of the announcement, they were all welcomed to the unveiling at the Oostkerk, where Vleeshal and the artists were present.

About the artists:Salim Bayri’s multidisciplinary practice includes videos, installations, wearable artworks, apps, drawings, and digital prints. His work intentionally creates contrasts and confrontations between images, situations, technologies, and cultural practices. A similarly sharp approach characterizes the work of Ghita Skali, who uses striking news items, rumors, and propaganda to undermine institutional power structures, such as those of the Western contemporary art world, state oppression, and government politics. The duo previously collaborated on the exhibition Dead Skin Cash at W139, in which they presented dead skin as a symbolic form of currency.