Projects, initiatives,
arts and culture events
of ERIAC

CARGO

– of Dust and Ashes                    

exhibition featuring works of Charly Bechaimont (FR), Anita Horváth (HU), Lila Loisse (UK)

Curated by RomaMoMA | Emese Molnár

August 2nd marks the 80th anniversary of the Roma Holocaust, a repressed trauma that has only recently resurfaced thanks to the intellectual and political efforts of Romani elites beginning in the 1960s. In memory of all 500,000 Roma and Sinti murdered in Nazi-occupied Europe, ERIAC presents the exhibition CARGO – of Dust and Ashes and invites to a collective reconstruction of history, through the lenses of the youngest generations of artists of Roma origin.

A melancholy embrace in the form of a backpack of hay and fading memories. A heavy suitcase filled with cement. Not of the dust of the road, but of broken pieces of the road itself. The path has become a burden; it is unbearable to carry on. Whose road is this, and who is able to continue on the way?

To commemorate European Holocaust Memorial Day for Roma and Sinti, these three artists, Charly Bechaimont (FR), Anita Horváth (HU), and Lila Loisse (UK), representing a range of Roma communities from across Europe, embark on a journey to uncover their own personal histories – of their ancestors, and of their broader communities. They explore the ways that trauma is transmitted through layers of generations, aiming to create spaces for our shared memory. By collectively reconstructing their past—a lieux de mémoire of this overwhelming and burdensome legacy – they cast light on a weight that is unseen, yet continues to exert its destructive presence upon the lives of Roma, Sinti, and Traveller communities across Europe.

On the opening day of the exhibition, we will come together to collectively ask, is it possible to walk the line without continuing to bear the burden of our “Cargo”?

Opening on July 31, 6 pm CET

The opening event features a performance piece and installation by Charly Bechaimont, The Taste of Blood, during which the artist delves into a deeply personal yet universally resonant exploration of memory, identity, and historical silence. The performance is followed by a panel discussion with the artists, in conversation with independent curator Isabel Raabe, one of the initiators of RomArchive – Digital Archive of Sinti and Roma.

18:00 Welcoming words by Timea Junghaus, executive director of ERIAC

18:30 The Taste of Blood – performance piece by Charly Bechaimont

19:00 Reconstructing History “from Dust and Ashes” – the artists in conversation with Isabel Raabe, independent curator.

Lila Loisse, Cargo, 2024. Hay, textile, 88 x 36 x 46 cm. Photo by Roberts Jansons, courtesy of the artist.

Charly Bechaimont (1991), born in Saint-Dié-Des-Vosges, France, is a graduate of the École Supérieure d’Art et de Design de Reims and winner of the Prix Prisme 2022. Based in the Grand-Est region of France, his work is largely transdisciplinary. His practice is mainly autobiographical, taking as its starting point his belonging to the travelling community, but also his homosexuality and the conditions under which these two identities cohabit or, on the contrary, repel each other. By invoking dirt, violence, the caravan or even the figure of the clown, he articulates essentializing clichés to better turn their meaning around and render their stigmatizing character inoperative.