One Day We Shall Celebrate Again: RomaMoMA at documenta fifteen

We have relied on our own archives, our own transgenerational sharing of knowledge, our own pedagogies of practice. The beauty that we share with the world, the ways that we teach, learn, and thrive, have been built by us, for each other—and, yes, for you. We have healed each other, and, through our fortune-telling, our metalwork, our horses, our art, our caring for the Earth, we have strived to heal you as we heal ourselves. This is how we educate. This is our heritage. This is our culture. We heal, we teach, we share, we build new ways of knowing and new forms of being, in everything we do. —Ethel Brooks: RomaMoMA Manifesto for documenta fifteen, 2022

The group exhibition, One Day We Shall Celebrate Again: RomaMoMA at documenta fifteen, showcases artworks related to the idea, question, and (im)possibilities of a “RomaMoMA” (Roma Museum of Contemporary Art).

How is it possible to present Roma artistic heritage and contemporary art, which is still outside the cultural canon, in a formal exhibition environment, while it is precisely the systematic work, the collection and recognition process of Roma art that has been lacking, as well as the institutions that would make it all possible?

What is the definition of Roma art—or Roma artist, and should we even examine such categories? On view at multiple locations in the scope of documenta fifteen, One Day We Shall Celebrate Again takes the spectator from the untold or silenced stories of the past to the present, creating a space traversing contemporary works and voices. A diversity of voices through works of older and younger generations of artists is presented in a way that both constructs and deconstructs the idea of the Roma art museum and creates an imaginary transnational space within the edifice of the Fridericianum, the first public museum building on the European continent.

Participating artists: Daniel Baker, János Balázs, Robert Gabris, Sead Kazanxhiu, Damian Le Bas, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Omara (Mara Oláh), Tamás Péli, Selma Selman, Ceija Stojka

Curated by Daniel Baker, Ethel Brooks, Tímea Junghaus, Hajnalka Somogyi, Eszter Szakács, Katalin Székely, Miguel Ángel Vargas

Consultants: Eszter György, Angéla Kóczé / CEU Romani Studies, Anna Lujza Szász, Teri Szücs

Contributor: East Europe Biennial Alliance

RomaMoMA is a transnational, collaborative and discursive art project of the European Roma Institute of Arts and Culture (ERIAC) and OFF-Biennale Budapest. Through various iterations manifested as exhibitions, events, and publications, presented at sites across Europe, it has been imagining and prefiguring a transnational museum of Roma contemporary art.

One Day We Shall Celebrate Again: RomaMoMA at documenta fifteen is a contribution by OFF-Biennale Budapest, in the frame of lumbung inter-lokal, to documenta fifteen. It is realised with the generous support of Ammodo and the Goethe-Institut.

One Day We Shall Celebrate Again: RomaMoMA at documenta fifteen

documenta fifteen

June 18–September 25, 2022

Fridericianum

Friedrichsplatz 18

34117 Kassel
 Germany

Previous Blog Entry

Next Blog Entry