Collective Remembrance – Eugen Raportoru: Gelem, Gelem Samudaripen
In commemoration of the 78th anniversary of the tragic events of 2 August, 1944 ERIAC has partnered with the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant (MNTR) in Bucharest to remember and honor the memory of the victims of the Roma Holocaust, and the deportation of thousands of Roma children to Transnistria under Marshall Antonescu’s Romania in 1942.
Eugen Raportoru is featured artist of the Roma exhibition at Venice Biennale 2022 (commissioned by ERIAC), while his latest show, Gelem, Gelem Samudaripen was on view at the Tancred Bănățeanu hall of the Peasant Museum.
Twelve large canvases stand as witnesses to ‘speak about the unspoken’. In his practice, Raportoru combines the paintings with wooden household objects which also posess their own memory. Several objects of the installation have been primarily used for baking and working on the fields, while through the artistic intervention got transformed into means of resistance and survival.
The connecting event to the Gelem, Gelem Samudaripen exhibition on August 2nd was realized with the support of the National Center for Roma Culture from Romania, CNCR-Romano Kher.
Video production: Cristian Carip
