Arts and Culture

There are certain key impulses that inspire the work that the Slovak-Roma artist Emília Rigová (*1980) has produced up till now, and which guide her creative trajectory. First and most crucial is the emergence of her alter ego, Bári Raklóri (bári = big, raklóri = daughter of non-Roma parents), which has become a leitmotif of her...

On 16 May 2022, Romani communities across Europe will come together to mark the 78th anniversary of the Romani Uprising in Auschwitz. On that day in 1944, Roma prisoners of the so-called Zigeunerlager at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, having heard of the imminent liquidation of the camp, stood up against the Nazi guards armed with only hammers, pickaxes and shovels. As a result...

This year marks five years since the passing of the prominent American art historian, Linda Nochlin, who became world renowned for her 1971 ground-breaking article, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”[1] Unfortunately, Nochlin will not bear witness to this year’s 59th International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale[2] that promises to be a ground-breaking long-overdue...

it matters what worlds world worlds. how to tell stories otherwise… Manifesta 14 Western Balkans Expert Talk 16 May 2022 The 14th Edition of Manifesta, the European Nomadic Biennial, will take place from 22 July until 30 October 2022 in Prishtina, Kosovo. Organised for the occasion of the biennial, Manifesta 14 has set up the...

Daniel Baker’s preoccupation with the contingent nature of Roma material culture is highlighted in the conceptual artwork Getaway, an installation designed to occupy the public square at the entrance to Eugen Raportoru: The Abduction from Seraglio, & Roma Women: Performative Strategies of Resistance, at Biennale Arte 2022. Getaway is defined as: an act or instance of...

Over the course of the 127 year long history of the Biennale, the exhibition commissioned by ERIAC for the 59th International Art Exhibition is only the fourth occasion when a presence of Roma art is ensured. The current cultural underrepresentation of work made by Roma coupled with the continuing stereotypical representation of Roma by non-Roma...

Interview with Wojciech Szymański and Joanna Warsza, co-curators of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s exhibition in the Polish Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale. What is the exhibition concept and the journey behind it? Wojciech Szymański: The concept for the exhibition Re-Enchanting the World was born late last summer. On the one hand, with its title, the exhibition refers...

Re-enchanting the World – a conversation with Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, the artist representing Poland at the 59th International Art Exhibition Your monumental work in the Polish Pavilion refers to the famous “calendar” cycle of frescoes from the Renaissance Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, Italy. How was the idea for this project born? MMT: The project is an...

RomaMoMA interviews curator Ilina Schileru. You are both an artist and a curator. How have these two practices influenced each other within you? Ilina Schileru: It all started with my need to create a community as an artist, and I envisioned it as an artist-led community. That is when I began negotiating for a space...

RomaMoMA interviews Eugen Raportoru. Among the most recognised painters of his generation in his country of origin, Eugen Raportoru (Bucharest, 1961) has always taken pride in his Roma origins. His recent experiments in installation narrate past memories from his childhood and often contain self-referential elements through which he creates a hidden genealogy of the unspoken...

  Manifesta 14 Prishtina_Co-Producing Common Space and Shaping Formations of Solidarity in the Western Balkans and Beyond – M14WB 22.07 – 30.10.2022 RomaMoMA Library ft. Daniel Baker and Farija Mehmeti Roma Rajni Curated by Timea Junghaus   By joining Manifesta 14 Prishtina_Co-Producing Common Space and Shaping Formations of Solidarity in the Western Balkans and Beyond,...

Interview with the Commissioners of the Roma Exhibition at the 59th Biennale Arte: Abduction from the Seraglio: Timea Junghaus, Executive Director of ERIAC, and Zeljko Jovanovic, Director of the Open Society Roma Initiatives Office, and Chairman of the Board of ERIAC RomaMoMA: What is the history of the presence of Roma art at the La...

On the occasion of the International Romani Day (8 April), ERIAC is hosting three young and upcoming artists representing contemporary Roma woman’s art in the exhibition GOSSIPS. Artists: Luna De Rosa | Dariya Kanti | Nataliia Tomenko

  Background Despite the Council of Europe’s decades-long engagement with Romani issues, the educational inclusion of Romani children and adolescents continues to present major challenges. Successive recommendations from the Committee of Ministers are clear about the political principles and social values that should shape policy, and equally clear about the outcomes that policy implementation should...

Collateral Events of the 59th International Venice Biennale.  Curated by Ilina Schileru. Commissioned by Zeljko Jovanovic and Timea Junghaus on behalf of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC).  With special contributions from: Ethel Brooks, Ioanida Costache, Mihaela Drăgan, Carmen Gheorghe, Delia Grigore, Angéla Kóczé, Dijana Pavlovic, Erasma Vicenzina Pevarello, Alina Șerban The...

In the times of museums being burned down because of war or put at risk because of climate disaster effects – what is a meaning of a public art collection? Could we imagine a different definition of collecting, an alternative circulation of objects, or an art museum without art objects? What if museums start collecting...

ARTromnja is a collaborative project between Romane Romnja and ERIAC, born out of a necessity and shared ambition to combat the prevalence of Roma misrepresentation – especially with regard to Roma women – in the media. The ARTromnja project aims to amplify Roma women voices and highlight Roma women contributions to the field of arts and culture through the personal accounts of six Sinti and Roma women artists and changemakers.

The European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) is proud to present Eugen Raportoru: The Abduction from the Seraglio, accompanied by Roma Women: Performative Strategies of Resistance, an official collateral event at the 59th International Art Exhibition, curated by Ilina Schileru. In the long history of La Biennale, this is only the fourth occasion when a presence of...