Rašid Nikolić Performance at ERIAC Spring Salon
On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of April 8, International Roma Day, Rašid Nikolić, Roma artist, paramísar (storyteller), puppeteer and activist, presented a marionette show for the opening of the group exhibition Yesterday is Tomorrow at ERIAC’s Spring Salon. The European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture is pleased to release the recording of this performance on YouTube and invites audiences to get a glimpse of the world of paramiśa.
Fables, stories, fairy tales and legends are translated in the Romani language with a single term: ‘paramiśa’. For Rašid Nikolić, the Paramiśar (storyteller) is not only a social role within the romano them (the Romani world), but the highest form of expression of the resistance of the Roma people.
Using puppets and marionettes, the Paramiśar directs their stories not only inward, toward the community, but also outward, toward the wider world:
“Today I inherit this role just as I inherited my name and the craft of carpentry from my grandfather. Through street performance and my personal experience, the need is reborn to tell the truth about my people, and to reflect on our future.
In my Paramiśar, I tie together all these threads and fragment my soul within my marionettes. I carry out my work always thinking back to the fairy tales told in the warmth of my family, within that great embrace and in the sweet and heartbreaking inheritance of my blood: Me sem Rom (I am Roma)”.
Between 9 April and 24 July 2026, Rašid Nikolić’s marionettes are part of the group exhibition Yesterday is Tomorrow, on display at ERIAC Art Space in Berlin. The show explores how traditional craft practices re-emerge in contemporary art as sites of innovation, memory, and cultural resilience.
Techniques such as weaving, embroidery, woodcarving are revisited and re-enacted within new artistic contexts: craft becomes sculpture, performance, narrative, and installation; ultimately, a manifestation of a desire to reestablish a link to reality, and to the contemporary tradition of the past.
Yesterday is Tomorrow: Spring Salon at ERIAC
Aliz Farkas (HU), Roland Farkas (NL), Rašid Nikolić (IT), Roxy Toledo Munrose(UK)
9 April – 24 July, 2026
Curated by Emese Molnár
ERIAC Gallery Space (Reinhardtstraße 41-43, 10117 Berlin)
Comments are closed.