ERIAC and the Fortunoff Video Archive Announce 2026 Roma Holocaust Voices Fellows
The European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) and the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University are pleased to introduce the recipients of the 2026 Roma Holocaust Voices Fellowship: Clara Farkas and František Balog. Through their creative practices, the two fellows will engage with the testimonies of Roma and Sinti Holocaust survivors, bringing archival voices into dialogue with contemporary cultural and social contexts.
The Roma Holocaust Voices Fellowship supports Roma creators in developing public-facing creative projects that critically engage with historical testimonies and explore new ways of interpreting, preserving, and communicating memories of the Roma Holocaust.
As part of the fellowship, Clara Farkas and František Balog will receive exclusive access to audiovisual testimonies of Roma Holocaust survivors preserved in the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. Working with these archival materials, the fellows will develop original creative projects that interpret and reframe the testimonies through their individual artistic practices.
The fellowship encourages innovative approaches to archival memory, supporting artists in translating historical testimonies into contemporary forms that can enhance their visibility, accessibility, and relevance for diverse audiences. By creating new encounters with these testimonies, the programme seeks to contribute to the continued recognition and transmission of Roma Holocaust memory.
ERIAC and the Fortunoff Archive congratulate Clara Farkas and František Balog on their selection and look forward to the creative perspectives they will bring to the testimonies entrusted to them.
The Winning Projects
Clara Farkas – Romery
The Roma Holocaust testimonies preserved in the Fortunoff Archive offer a unique encounter with inherited memory. Their continued relevance depends not only on preservation but also on the possibility of generating new forms of engagement. This project seeks to create such a space by producing new forms of cultural memory through which the symbolic archive can be democratized.
At the center of the project is a series of graphic narrative reinterpretations of 4–6 selected Roma Holocaust testimonies. Inspired by works such as Maus, Persepolis, and Habibi, the project creates black-and-white sequential drawings that respond to the testimonies’ emotional, symbolic, and atmospheric dimensions.
The primary outcome of the fellowship will be a multimedia installation presented through exhibition and digital dissemination.
František Balog – Farewell in Birkenau: Voices That Remain
This project is a creative short film inspired by the original theatre monodrama Farewell in Birkenau and based on authentic testimonies of Roma Holocaust survivors preserved in the Fortunoff Video Archive. Selected survivor testimonies will serve as the central narrative foundation of the film, guiding its narrative structure and emotional journey. Through performance, visual storytelling, original music, and symbolic imagery, the project creates a dialogue between survivors’ memories and present-day reflections on exclusion, prejudice, and resilience.
The expected outcome is a professionally produced short film of approximately 25–30 minutes, suitable for film festivals, educational screenings, museums, cultural institutions, and public discussions.
Meet the Fellowship Recipients
Clara Farkas
Clara Farkas is a Hungarian Romungro and Colombian artist, filmmaker, and curator based in Budapest. Her work explores the relationship between identity and cultural memory through documentary film, installation, and digital art.
She is the co-director of Bura Gallery, a progressive contemporary Roma art space in Budapest, and vice-president of the Contemporary Roma Art Space Association.
Alongside her artistic practice, she has worked as an art director and production designer on internationally acclaimed films, including Infinity Pool by Brandon Cronenberg and Oxana by Charlène Favier, and has contributed to film productions such as Deathless Woman by Roz Mortimer.
Her first solo exhibition, The Good Life Is Over, explored identity, womanhood, and historical memory by bringing together Roma and Indigenous Abya Yala perspectives. The exhibition examined how identities are shaped by the intertwined legacies of colonization, Christianization, and patriarchy, while foregrounding the female body as sites for imagining new narratives beyond dominant historical frameworks.
Clara is a PhD student at the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School of Historical Studies, where her research focuses on reflexive documentary filmmaking, practices of memory-making, and contemporary Roma self-representation.
Her current feature documentary project, Loba Loca, expands her long-term research into family archives, migration, and inherited histories through a hybrid cinematic form that combines documentary, performance, and animation.
František Balog
František Balog is a Slovak theatre actor, playwright, director, and cultural leader whose work is dedicated to preserving and promoting Roma history and culture through contemporary theatre.
Raised in a children’s home, where he spent 25 years of his life, this experience profoundly shaped his artistic vision. Before becoming a professional actor, he was widely known as a child singer in the renowned ensemble Slniečata.
He graduated from the Hotel Academy, the Roma Conservatory, and later earned a degree in Acting from the Academy of Performing Arts. He is the founder of Divadlo PárnoKalo Slovakia, the founder of the professional Actor Theatre Košice, and the founder and artistic director of the international theatre festival KHETANE – Together.
Since 2016, he has worked extensively with Roma children and young people through theatre workshops, educational programmes, and community-based cultural initiatives.
He is the author and performer of the acclaimed autobiographical monodrama From the Cradle to the Majority (Róm z perinky / Enter the Majority), inspired by his own life story. The production has been performed more than 126 times in Slovakia and abroad and has received several prestigious awards, including Best Male Actor, Best Performance, and awards recognising its outstanding contribution to Roma culture and intercultural dialogue.
František Balog is also the author of the successful monodrama Goodbye, Birkenau, which focuses on the history and memory of the Roma Holocaust. Through authentic stories and contemporary theatre, the production commemorates the fate of Roma victims of Nazism while encouraging reflection on historical memory, human dignity, justice, and the importance of remembrance.
Through his artistic work, František Balog combines documentary research, personal experience, and contemporary theatre to preserve memory, challenge prejudice, and create meaningful dialogue about Roma identity, human rights, and social inclusion.