Roma Resistance and Resilience BERLIN
Exhibiting artists: Daniel Baker, Rifet Bajramović, José Manuel Fernández Cortés, Lajos Gabor – Joar Nango, Ľuboš Kotlár, Renata Roxana Mihaly, Estefanía Ruíz (Mil Duquelas), Zita Moldovan (Loly), Norbert Oláh, Marina Rosselle, Selma Selman
We can only comprehend the 600 years of resilience and survival of the Roma minority in Europe if we recognise the Roma scholarship, knowledge, oral and ritual traditions, festive events and social practices, concerning nature and the universe.
Just as all other Roma contributions to life on Earth, the Roma connectedness to nature, the different forms of environmental consciousness, and the ideas and practices for sustainability within Roma communities have been (just as all other Roma histories) oppressed, uncollected, underestimated or misinterpreted by stereotyping, without the corrective impact of the Roma themselves.
Young Roma artists and authors confess their hopes and fears, in an attempt to transfer fragments of the past, and to share Roma heritage, traditions and skills that have built and continue to build an environment in which humans’ peaceful coexistence with Nature and with each other is a foundational principle.
On view at the ERIAC gallery | 16 May – 25 July 2021 | Reinhardtstraße 41-43, 10117 Berlin
Roma Resistance and Resilience BELGRADE
Exhibiting artists: Rifet Bajramović, Lajos Gabor – Joar Nango, Ľuboš Kotlár, Estefanía Ruíz (Mil Duquelas), Norbert Oláh, Selma Selman, Zoran Tairović
On the Day of Roma Resistance, ERIAC commemorates the evening of 16 May 1944 – when over 6000 Roma stood up to the Nazi SS in Auschwitz-Birkenau, delaying the liquidation of the so-called ‘Gypsy camp’, by Roma organised uprising and fight. The ERIAC exhibition positions Roma resistance and resilience as the central aspect of the Roma experience. It comprehends the 600 years of resilience and survival of the Roma minority in Europe through a range of Roma resistance forms, such as scholarship, oral and ritual traditions, festive events and social practices, together with the Roma knowledge about Nature and the universe. Roma artists and authors connect the narratives of Roma heroism and agency with Roma consciousness about the responsibility to conserve natural resources and protect global ecosystems to support health and wellbeing, now and in the future.
On view at ERIAC gallery | 16 May – 25 July 2021 | Majke Jevrosime 51, 11 000 Beograd
The exhibition is curated by the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) in the framework of the Roma Components of the German Council of Europe Presidency in 2021.
Photo: Norbert Oláh: Anxiety of the Roma Artist, installation in public space, photography by Zoltán Dragon / OFF-Biennale Archives, 2021.
