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Roma, Sinti, Manoushes, Gitanos, Travellers…
Exhibition at the Mucem (Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean) in Marseille from May 10 to September 4, 2023
“Barvalo”, meaning “rich” and by extension “proud” in Romani, is dedicated to the history and diversity of the Romani peoples of Europe. Denouncing anti-Gypsyism and stereotypical representations, the exhibition also proposes to reverse the visitor’s gaze and to engage in a reflection on belonging and identity. The exhibition is designed collaboratively by a team of nineteen people of Romani (Roma, Sinti, Manouches, Gitanos, Travellers) and non-Romani origin, of different nationalities and backgrounds who have all been working on this groundbreaking project since 2018.
Curatorial team
Co-curators:
Julia Ferloni, curator, head of the “Crafts, Trade and Industry” unit, Mucem
Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka, associate director of Eriac – European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (Berlin)
Jonah Steinberg, associate professor and chair of the Global Studies Department at the University of Vermont, USA
Associate curators:
Françoise Dallemagne, collections and research officer, Mucem
Alina Maggiore, PhD student in social anthropology, Mucem / University of Aix-Marseille / University of Freiburg, Germany
Expert committee
William Acker, lawyer, general delegate of the National Association of Traveller Citizens (ANGVC)
Yahya Al-Abdullah, PhD student in social anthropology, EHESS Paris
Nelly Debart, fairground worker, president of ANGVC and member of the Travellers’ Advisory Council
Bénédicte Florin, lecturer in geography, Arab and Mediterranean World Team (EMAM), CITERES laboratory, University of Tours
Lise Foisneau, anthropologist, research fellow at the CNRS
Pascal Garret, photographer and sociologist, Tours
Caroline Godard, project manager of the NGO Rencontres Tsiganes, Marseille
Gabi Jimenez, visual artist and president of ADVOG
Timea Junghaus, art historian, director of Eriac, Berlin
Jean-Pierre Liégeois, sociologist, honorary teacher-researcher and director (1979-2003) of the Roma Research Centre at the University of Paris-Descartes, consultant to the Council of Europe
Valentin Merlin, freelance photographer
Cristian Padure, linguist, teacher-researcher at the University of Bucharest
Santino Spinelli, musician, composer and professor at the University of Chieti
Sasha Zanko, tinsmith, president of the NGO Tchatchipen and delegate of the European Roma and Travellers Forum
Scenography: bGc studio, Iva Berthon Gajšak, Giovanna Comana, Clara Launay
Graphic design: Fabrice Petithuguenin
The exhibition brings together 200 works and documents (printed, video and sound) from French and European public and private collections, including the Louvre Museum, the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the Nicéphore Niépce Museum in Chalon-sur-Saône, the Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône, the Archives municipales de Marseille, the Médiathèque Matéo Maximoff, the Musée de Grenoble, the National History Museum and the National Archives of Romania, the Kai Dikhas Foundation, the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture in Berlin, the Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma in Heidelberg.
Among these 200 works, 62 come from the Mucem’s collections and 15 were specially conceived for the exhibition and produced by the museum: 6 commissions to European Romani artists – Luna De Rosa (Italy), Gabi Jimenez and Marina Rosselle (France), Mitch Miller (Scotland), Emanuel Barica (Romania) – and 9 audiovisual creative works (film, animated map and sound).
Mucem BARVALO Invitation to the Opening ceremony on May 9, 2019
For more information on the exhibition and related programming, visit the Mucem website
The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MuCEM; French: Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée) is a national museum located in Marseille, France. It was inaugurated on 7 June 2013 as part of Marseille-Provence 2013, during the year when Marseille was designated the European Capital of Culture. By the following year, it had joined the ranks of the 50 most visited museums in the world.
The museum is devoted to European and Mediterranean civilisations. With a permanent collection charting historical and cultural cross-fertilisation in the Mediterranean basin, it takes an interdisciplinary approach to society through the ages, up to modern times. MuCEM is interested in the contemporary aspects of European and Mediterranean civilisations. Its collections include more than 350,000 objects, as well as a large assortment of documents, comprising a total of a million works of art, documents and objects, an extraordinary treasure trove that is promoted by means of an ambitious programme of permanent and temporary exhibitions. The 21st-century museum aims to be a real cultural centre covering a vast swath of history, making use of all the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, and displaying artistic expression from both shores of the Mediterranean.