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Proud Roma. The message of love from a nation without borders

by Helios Fernández Garcés “In his 1940 film The Great Dictator a Romani named Charlie Chaplin sent a message of love against hate”. With these words, Romani filmmaker and screenwriter Pablo Vega introduces the evocative short film Proud Roma, whose premiere will be released on 25 January 2022, for the international audience. For Vega, the essence of Romipen, the essential...

“I believe stories can change the world”

Jake Bowers speaks to Romani actor Alina Serban about her role in the new campaign film Proud Roma. There are some films whose impact is so profound, whose message is so clear, that the best thing any director or actress can do is pay homage to them and hope that some of their magic will rub off. A...

The Word for World Is Forest

I had planned to discuss here the art of emancipation, an original perspective, and the starting point taken by an artist who brings a breath of fresh air. Drawing on the works of Krzysztof Gil, I had intended to analyse his visual strategies, which decolonise canonical art in an original and personal way, exploring elements...

New Short Film Inspiring Pride in Roma Identity to Premiere This Month

Produced as part of the Proud Roma Free Europe campaign, the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture – ERIAC is pleased to release the short film Proud Roma, written and directed by award-winning Spanish-Romani filmmaker Pablo Vega, and starring Alina Serban and contemporary dancer Tony Gabarry.

Members appointed to the ERIAC Barvalipe Academy

Following the ERIAC Board meeting and the IV ERIAC General Assembly, new members were appointed ot the ERIAC Barvalipe Academy. The 3-year mandate of the Barvalipe Academy members, appointed in 2018, expires in 2021.    In accordance with the ERIAC statute, 7 members of the Barvalipe Academy are nominated by ERIAC’s Board “Pakiv”. These are: ...

Practising Archival Alliances: RomaMoMA at Vulnerable Archives

“But don’t worry, coz you won’t rule any more, the future is ours”.[1] Undermining the modernity/coloniality strategy of situating other knowledges and identities in a disempowered past through the act of labelling communities as “traditional” and “primitive” and denying them the right to participate in the present, Mihaela Drăgan, with her performance, Roma Futurism: The...

The Intersecting Gaps of Unknowing

Starting at the End: Unknowing OFF-Biennale Budapest was about to end in late April, when one of its most prestigious and yet under-recognised artworks, Péli Tamás’s Birth arrived in Budapest, to the Budapest History Museum in the Castle.[1] Shortly after closing the Mara Oláh exhibition[2] at the Glove Factory Community House (Kesztyűgyár Közösségi Ház), I...

ERIAC launches the Barvalipe Digital Library of Critical Romani Scholarship

On Wednesday, December 8 2021, the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), in the frame of the Barvalipe Roma Online University, has launched the Library Digital Library of Critical Romani Scholarship. A critical turn in Romani Studies, requires a process of decolonization and an evaluative reframing of our current bibliographies. The Barvalipe Digital Library...

TAJSA ROMA CULTURAL HERITAGE PRIZE CEREMOMY 2021

  The Tajsa Roma Cultural Heritage Prize was launched in 2019 by the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC).   Embodying the ERIAC founding principles, the Tajsa Prize honors a Roma individual who – by drawing from Roma cultural heritage – enriches the Roma arts and culture scene as well as shapes and...

From the Dining Hall to the Budapest History Museum: Contemporary Roma art and cultural heritage, trapped in community space?

The present text[1] presents a brief overview of the cultural and communal mission of Romano Kher from Hungary, especially focusing on their summer camps where significant artworks were displayed and made a major impact on generations of Roma youth. I argue here that due to a lack of proper institutional background, Roma cultural and art...