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On the International Roma Day, 8th of April, a guided tour will take place at the two institutions, which will start at ERIAC and will continue at RKI followed by the artistic performance of Alina Serban:
This is an artist’s autobiographical one-woman show. “I Declare at My Own Risk – The Best Child in the World”, following the dilemmas, and challenges that accompany a girl from a poverty-knit Roma community in Bucharest. The Roma Women’s Reliability Story and the First Personal Story told by a Romanian Roma Woman from Her Perspective, while so depicting the social injustices of the Roma minority is facing. Using her own story as a starting point, Alina wants to continue her performance with a discussion on Roma’s Roma history, which she wrote in her play ‘The Great Shame’, uncovering 500 years of unknown history of Roma slavery in Romania and its present day implications.
Alina Serban is the pioneer of Roma feminist political theater in Romania since 2009 and Romania’s first Roma woman theater director. Overcoming tremendous obstacles, including discrimination and poverty, she pursued her education at some of the best drama schools in the world – Tisch School of the Arts, New York and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. Serban has appeared in lectures of theatrical productions from London to Bucharest. She gained international acclaim with her autobiographical one-woman show ‘I Declare at My Own Risk’, an examination of conflicting identities, social discrimination, and the redemptive force of self-expression. Her latest play ‘The Great Shame’ explores five centuries of Roma slavery in Romania.
Program:
All day – Open House at ERIAC
17:30 – guided curatorial tour of the exhibition “Roma Women Weaving Europe” at ERIAC, Reinhardtstrasse 41-43, 10117 Berlin. The guided curatorial tour will continue at the RKI Berlin, Reinhardtstr. 14, 10117 Berlin.
18:15 – performance “The Best Child in The World” (excerpts) by Alina Serban, RKI Berlin, Reinhardtstr. 14, 10117 Berlin.
ENTRANCE IS FREE!
This event is part of the accompanying program of the exhibition “Exhibition Opening: Roma Women Weaving Europe” organized by the European Roma Institute of Arts and Culture – ERIAC and the Romanian Cultural Institute Berlin to celebrate Romani women as leaders and survivors, guardians and re-inventors of culture, revolutionaries and change-makers.