Romy Rüegger Begins Her Residency at Villa Romana, Florence
A cooperation between the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) and Villa Romana
ERIAC and Villa Romana are pleased to announce that Romy Rüegger has begun her residency in Florence as part of the International Guest Artists 2025 programme.
Through this joint initiative, now in its fifth year, both institutions reaffirm their shared commitment to supporting contemporary artists of Roma heritage by offering time, space, and institutional support for artistic development.
During her stay at Villa Romana, Romy continues to expand her research-driven artistic practice, which moves fluidly across performance, sound, spatial intervention, and listening methodologies. Her work often examines environmental memory, disembodiment, and the politics of visibility—creating encounters that unfold through movement, voice, and shifting sonic landscapes. The residency provides an environment for deeper exploration of these artistic concerns and the opportunity to develop new work within the context of Florence.
Video: Approaching Ultra Light by Romy Rüegger
To accompany this update from her ongoing residency, ERIAC is pleased to share the full video of Approaching Ultra Light, a performance by Romy Rüegger originally presented on International Romani Resistance Day.
The work was shown as part of ERIAC’s two-day programme “Roma Art of Resistance”, co-funded by the European Union and co-funded and implemented by the Council of Europe within the framework of the Joint Programme “Roma Memory.”
About the Artist
Romy Rüegger is an artist and researcher working at the intersection of environmental listening, choreography, writing, and spatial intervention. Her practice is grounded in careful attention to voices, sonic traces, and historical fragments, creating works that reveal tensions between presence and absence, memory and materiality.
Her recent performances and exhibitions include:
Kloental Triennale (2024), Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe, 2024), ARé Performing Arts Festival (Yerevan, 2023), Museum Tinguely (Basel, 2022/2023), and Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 2022).
Her monograph of performance scripts was published by Archive Books and Scriptings (2018), and her artist record by Apparent Extent (2024).
About the Residency Programme
Launched in 2020, the ERIAC × Villa Romana International Guest Artists programme creates long-term support structures for Roma contemporary art. Each year, the residency offers two selected artists a grant and one month at Villa Romana in Florence, providing space for creation, reflection, and exchange.