GUIDED TOUR of FUTUROMA exhibition with CURATOR DANIEL BAKER

This week, we are excited to share an unreleased video tour through the FUTUROMA exhibition with curator Daniel Baker, in person!

The group exhibition FUTUROMA, curated by Daniel Baker and commissioned by ERIAC, was a collateral event of the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia in 2019. The exhibition then travelled to Florence, hosted at the cultural institute Villa Romana in autumn of 2020.

FUTUROMA draws upon aspects of Afrofuturism to explore Roma contemporary art’s role in defining, reflecting and influencing Roma culture. FUTUROMA offers new and spontaneous reinterpretations of Roma pasts, presents and futures via a fusion of the traditional and the futuristic, in order to critique the current situation for Roma people and to re-examine historical events. Imagining Roma bodies in speculative futures offers a counter-narrative to the reductive ways that Roma culture has been understood and constructed—thereby moving our cultural expression beyond the restrictive motifs of oppression toward a radical and progressive vision of Roma to come. The confluence of traditional knowledge and contemporary art practice evident within FUTUROMA combines to highlight possibilities for different ways of being. Here, artworks are rooted in the techniques and traditions of the Roma diaspora, but at the same time are decisively forward-looking. The acts of remembering and imagining manifest within these artworks point toward ambitious visions of life-affirming futures, and at the same time allow reinterpretation of our collective pasts.

Exhibiting artists: Celia Baker | Ján Berky | Marcus-Gunnar Pettersson | Ödön Gyügyi | Billy Kerry | Klára Lakatos | Delaine Le Bas | Valérie Leray | Emília Rigová | Markéta Šestáková | Selma Selman | Dan Turner | Alfred Ullrich | László Varga

Watch the video to experience an exclusive tour by the curator through the complete exhibition!

FUTUROMA Catalogue – Open Access

Daniel Baker is a Romani Gypsy artist, researcher, and curator. Originally from Kent, and currently based in London, his work is exhibited internationally and can be found in collections across the globe. Baker earned a PhD in 2011 from the Royal College of Art, with his dissertation, “Gypsy Visuality: Gell’s Art Nexus and its Potential for Artists”, after previously earning an MA in Sociology/Gender and Ethnic Studies from Greenwich University, and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Ravensbourne College of Art and Design.
Baker has contributed to numerous exhibitions, held various residencies, and curated several commissions. He previously worked as an exhibitor and consultant for the first and second Roma events at the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – “Paradise Lost” and “Call the Witness”, which took place during the 52nd and 54th International Art Exhibitions of La Biennale di Venezia, respectively. In 2018, hosting an open call for curators, an international jury consisting of Professor Dr Ethel Brooks, Tony Gatlif, Miguel Ángel Vargas, and ERIAC management selected Baker to curate the Roma Collateral Event.
Baker’s work examines the role of art in the enactment of social agency, through an eclectic practice that interrogates contemporary art discourse and its social implications via the reconfiguration of elements of the Roma aesthetic. For more information about Baker and his revolutionary work, visit www.danielbaker.net

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