THE GYPSY CHRONICLES WEBSITE » ALISA DIDKOVSKY ART GOES TO SWEDEN →
Oh my goodness, what an article *__*
“Muri Romani Familja” | Artwork of Alisa Didkovsky →
Earlier this year, I was contacted by the producer at the museum, asking if I would like to exhibit my works at an upcoming exhibit. However, being that I’m not Roma, the idea was dropped. I was still very happy to have had my art be recognise by a museum, since it had never happened before.
A couple months later I was pleasantly surprised to see another e-mail from the producer. This one stated that, even though I’m not Roma, the Roma community in Malmö with whom they were working on the exhibit with now invited me to display my works with theirs.
There are no words to express how excited I am, and how glad I am for this amazing and wonderful opportunity. I’ve been waiting all this time to say anything on this site, because I wanted to be able to link to the museum’s information on the exhibit. And, finally, here it is!
Text from the site:
I utställningen Muri Romani Familja möter du unga aktivister, musiker och tecknare från Malmö och omvärlden.
Med allvar, humor och en del attityd ger de sin bild av samtida romsk kultur. Muri Romani Familja är Romani och betyder Min Romska Familj.
I år uppmärksammas att det är 500 år sedan den första närvaron av romer noterades i Sverige. Anteckningen gjordes i Stockholms Tänkeböcker den 29 september 1512.
My translation with the help of Google translate:
In the exhibition ‘Muri Romani Familja’ you meet young activists, musicians and artists from Malmö and abroad.
With seriousness, humour and attitude, they give their view of contemporary Roma culture. ‘Muri Romani Familja’ is Romani and means ‘My Roma Family’.
This year notes 500 years since the first record of Roma presence in Sweden. The record was made in Stockholms Tänkeböcker on 29 September, 1512.
I shall also be travelling with my family to Malmö to check out the exhibit – as well as hang around Copenhagen a bit.
Citi Hungary Celebrates Diversity with a Roma Art Exhibition [The FINANCIAL] →
The FINANCIAL — In line with Citi’s commitment to support local communities and promote diversity internally and externally around the globe, Citi Hungary’s Community Volunteering Committee has organized a Roma Art Exhibition at its headquarters in Budapest.
Talented, young artists who are members of the Budapest Roma Gallery Association will have their paintings showcased on walls of the corridors and offices of the Citi Service Center from September 12 to October 8, 2012.
The exhibition features the works of four young Roma artists Tibor Balogh (1975), Kálmán Káli-Horváth (1975), Zsolt Vári (1974), Sándor Kiss (1974) and non – Roma artists Marianna Borkó (1977) and Gábor Szerényi (1953).
The opening ceremony for the exhibition was held at the Budapest Citi Service Center on September 12 as part of Citi’s O&T Culture Week activities. Maurice Thompson, Citi Country Officer (CCO) for the UK, along with Terry O’Leary, Regional Head of Operations & Technology in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Gregg Morton, Head of Citi Shared Services in EMEA, joined Batara Sianturi, CCO for Hungary, and Bea Elod, Head of the Budapest Citi Service Center, as well as more than 100 service center employees for the opening ceremony.
Maurice Thompson said: “I am very impressed by the talent and performance of our Hungary Service Center team of around 700 young professionals serving our Citi entities in the region and globally in various functions. This is a very diverse team in terms of nationality, gender, ethnicity and religion and today our colleagues in Hungary reinforced Citi’s commitment to diversity by hosting this Roma Gallery in our premises. I am very pleased to have met these accomplished and enthusiastic artists, and continue to be impressed by the dedication and professionalism of our Service Center team.”
Batara Sianturi remarked, “This initiative represents a creative addition to our long-term strategic community programs in Hungary. I hope that providing these young artists with the opportunity to showcase their work in such a diverse environment as our Citi Service Center will have a positive impact on their careers.”
Kálmán Káli-Horváth, one of the Roma artists noted: “We all come from a very difficult background and have been working hard to achieve our goal of becoming appreciated artists in Hungary, but there is still a long way to go. We believe that everyone’s fortunes are in their own hands and everyone has the ability to realize their dreams if they work relentlessly to get there. However, one must be open to, and seek out any opportunities to expand professionally and support their career growth. We consider this initiative a valuable opportunity to enhance our artist profiles and build our careers.”
The paintings on display at the Budapest Citi Service Center are as diverse as the artists themselves. Tibor Balogh captures the less famous buildings of Budapest, using light and shadow to bring to life the feelings and emotions of the city, as Citigroup reported. Kálmán Káli-Horváth’s painting of a boy and his violin titled “Look in my eyes!” conveys mildness and stubbornness, as well as vulnerability. Zsolt Vári’s painting of “Greta, a small girl” is an iconic piece delivering the message that despite difficulties, vulnerability and fear, one can always live with dignity. While most of Sándor Kiss’s paintings are of ‘religious icons’, this time he has brought his realist paintings with strong blue influences adding modernity to his usual traditional topics.
2nd edition of the Open-Air plenary Romani Art - International Dialogue "Jaw Dikh" project in Czarna Góra village in South of Poland (Djelem Djelem) →
Harangos Roma Educational Association invites you to the 2nd edition of the Open-Air plenary Romani Art - International Dialogue “Jaw Dikh” project in Czarna Góra village in South of Poland.
This project aims at establishing a dialogue between the Roma artists from Europe. The first edition took place in August 2011 and it’s success convinced us about the need of continuity of this initiative. In attachment you will find a publication from the event in 2011.
My name is Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, and I’m a Roma artist from Poland, initiator and coordinator of this project. Below you will find a short description of the project - main themes, aims and some of the activities planned. I will be happy to answer all your questions regarding the project.
We are looking forward to your participation in the project. Please inform us if you would be interested in participating in this event:
01st of September till 10th of September 2012
Museum of Romani Culture to commemorate mass transport of Romani people from the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia →
On Wednesday, 7 March 2012, it will have been 69 years since the first mass transport of Romani people from the city of Brno and other parts of Moravia under the Nazi Protectorate to the death camp at Auschwitz. On this occasion, the Museum of Romani Culture, as is its tradition, will commemorate this tragic event. The commemoration will take place in the fourth hall of the museum’s permanent exhibition, which is dedicated to the topic of the Holocaust.
The commemoration will take place on Wednesday, 7 March 2012 starting at 14:00 CET and will be attended by several individuals who remember the transport as well as by representatives of public life. After a brief historical introduction, flowers will be laid in front of the memorial plaque and those invited to do so will speak. A brief musical performance by Romani artists will also be part of the commemoration.
The transport of 7 March 1943 was the first mass transport of Romani people from the Protectorate to the death camp of Auschwitz II-Birkenau. It was ordered by Heinrich Himmler, the Interior Minister of the Reich and leader of the SS, on 16 December 1942. He prescribed the forced concentration at the Auschwitz camp complex of all who were racially labeled as “gypsies and gypsy half-breeds” in German-occupied territory.
In Brno the transport began from the stables of the mounted division of the Protectorate Police force, which were located in Masná street. At the start of March 1943, entire families from the Romani settlements in Brno and other parts of Moravia were concentrated there in inhuman conditions. All of the prisoners had to hand over all of their personal documents and were ignominiously shaved and disinfected. According to the list that was drawn up, on 7 March 1943 they were brought to the loading dock of the local municipal slaughterhouse and forced into the freight cars that brought them to their destination. On that day, more than 1 000 Romani children, men and women of all ages were transported. Most of them did not survive.
You can find more information on the website of the museum, www.rommuz.cz.
(source: “Museum of Romani Culture to Commemorate Mass Transport of Romani People from the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.” Romea.cz - Romové On-line. Trans. Gwendolyn Albert. 2 Mar. 2012. Web. http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_3204#)
2012 Chockfull of New Exhibits at Petaluma Museum →
Karina Ioffee
The Petaluma Historical Museum is getting ready for the new year with eight separate exhibits that offer something for all interests. Included in the ambitious lineup is an exhibit on Navajo code talkers, a show about Roma history and a display of vintage wedding dresses pulled from local collections.
“The interesting thing about this year is the vast majority of items are sourced locally, and if not, heavily augmented with local content,” said Mark Tomlinson, a museum board member.
A message left for Petaluma Historical Museum president Joe Noriel was not immediately returned.
The museum kicks off 2012 with an exhibit titled “Coming Home,” a collection of charcoal sketches by Sonoma County artist and Vietnam War veteran Mike Dowdall. The images show soldiers, nurses and others involved in armed conflicts and reflect heroism and human strength, Tomlison said. The exhibit, which opens January 12, is timed to coincide with the return of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Then in February, PHM will highlight the contributions of women who fought for civil rights and is timed with Black History Month. According to Tomlinson, the goal of the exhibit is to demonstrate how women from all classes, races, cultures and ethnicities have fought for equality in all aspects of society. It opens February 3.
That’s followed by a show titled “Roma: Crossing the Borders,” focusing on the history and contributions of the Romani (Gypsy) people. The exhibit features Roma art, discusses Roma origins (they are believed to have originated in India over 1,000 years ago) and ongoing issues facing the nationless people, who total some 20 million globally.
“There is this stereotype of people sitting around the fire, but that’s not quite accurate,” says Tomlinson, who although British by birth is of Roma heritage.
The exhibit is entirely funded by a $6,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, considered a big achievement for the museum which has faced criticism recently for spending more money on exhibits than it pulled in from attendance fees.
And on April 21, PHM unveils a Smithsonian exhibit on Navajo code talkers whose communications in over 12 different native languages over airwaves and telephone lines could not be cracked by the enemy. To fund this show, the Petaluma Historical Museum is relying on grants from the Smithsonian and private foundations. Items from private collections of Petaluma veterans will also be included.
Then in July, the museum will display more than 20 vintage Victorian wedding dresses that were once owned by wealthy Petalumans. The display is drawn from the museum’s extensive textiles collection and “is a fascinating step back in time that offers insight into a bygone era,” according to Tomlinson.
Continuing its tribute to veterans, which started with the “Vietnam Experience” exhibit in the fall of 2010, the museum will feature a show about the Korean War. Often called the Forgotten War, the Korean War is the first war in which U.S. forces were racially integrated and the first time the MASH unit were used. The exhibit opens October 11 and runs through December 16.
Finally in December, Bay Area artist Raymond Sells who creates largescale wood sculptures, will display his work at the museum.
“When you look at the lineup, you realize that it’s a lot for a small museum in the North Bay to be doing,” says Tomlinson. ”We are giving people a reason to come month after month and not just once a year.”
(source: Petaluma Patch)
Heidelberg, Germany: Museum explores Nazi persecution of Gypsies during Holocaust →
Nancy Montgomery
Anneliese Franz smiles for the camera as she stands on Heidelberg’s Philosopher’s Way, the castle ruins visible behind her. She’s a young woman with dark hair wearing a pretty dress, and although it’s 1944, she has somehow not been rounded up by the Nazis and murdered.
Franz was a Sinti — a Zigeuner, or Gypsy, according to the Germans. That made her, like the Roma Gypsies of eastern Europe — and 6 million Jews — part of the “alien strain” the Nazis rooted out, dispossessed, deported and killed during the Third Reich.
The photo of Franz is one of many portraits at a unique Heidelberg museum: the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma.
“It’s the only exhibition about the Sinti and the Roma and the Holocaust in Europe and the whole world,” said Joschi Rose, a center employee.
The center opened in 1997, 15 years after the German government formally acknowledged the genocide against the Sinti and Roma, the preferred name of the ethnic group that originated in India, came to Europe about 1,000 years ago, and is still subject to discrimination and derogatory stereotypes.
The Nazi genocide of the Roma and Sinti is less well-known than the Holocaust, in part because the Roma and Sinti were more marginalized than Jews before the Nazis came to power because of greater levels of poverty and illiteracy and less organization by Roma and Sinti communities, historians say. In fact, because of the number of Sinti and Roma living before the Holocaust isn’t clear — many of them were nomadic — neither is their death toll.
Both had been stigmatized and persecuted for centuries.
“But there were many ways they lived together normally (with Germans),” Rose said. “Before 1933, Sinti and Roma were more integrated into the community.”
Historians estimate 500,000 were exterminated as part of the Nazis’ attempted annihilation of entire peoples they deemed subhuman. The center describes how it happened, through documents and photographs from the Nazis juxtaposed with family photographs of the murdered and some of their personal histories.
Visitors to the center can see an image of Johann Trollmann, a young Sinti boxer who was stripped of his light-heavyweight title by the Nazis in 1933 after winning a fight. Trollmann avoided earlier deportations by being sterilized — the same way that Franz escaped death. She was sterilized at the University of Heidelberg.
Trollmann, though, was eventually sent to a concentration camp, where he was beaten to death.
Roma and Sinti were all identified, measured and recorded with the help of the doctors at the Research Center for Racial Hygiene, established in 1936. According to the center, “24 details on the head alone” were measured in the pseudoscientific pursuit of classifying people.
One of the most haunting images is of four young Roma girls, starved into near skeletons, who were part of Joseph Mengele’s unspeakable twin experiments at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps.
In fact, historians say, Roma and Sinti suffered disproportionately in the experiments carried out by Nazi doctors and anthropologists.
“Mengele once had a family of eight murdered so that their different colored eyes could be sent to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology in Berlin-Dahlem,” says the voice on the tour headset.
DIRECTIONS
The Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma is located in Heidelberg’s old town at Bremeneckgasse 2, Heidelberg 69117. The closest parking is a multistory parking garage P12, Kornmarkt/Schloss.
TIMES
The center is open 9:30 a.m.- 7:45 p.m. Tuesday; 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; and 11 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. weekends. Closed Mondays.
COSTS
Admission is free.
FOOD
There are plenty of restaurants with a variety of price ranges just a couple of blocks away on the city’s main pedestrian street.
INFORMATION
Call 06221-981102 or visit sintiundroma.de. Interpretive headsets in English are available at no charge. If planned in advance, a tour guided by a historian is also available at no charge.
(source: Stars and Stripes)
Romani Culture Museum completes permanent exhibition →
Brno, Dec 1 (CTK) - The Czech Romany Culture Museum has completed its permanent exhibition depicting the whole history of Romanies from their beginning to the present, ethnographer and historian Jana Polakova, who administers it, told CTK yesterday.
The first part of the exhibition devoted to World War Two was already established in 2005. After that, another three rooms were prepared.
The public will see the whole exhibition for the first time on Friday, Polakova said.
However, the museum’s collecting and documentary activities have not ended. It will continue collecting objects on the history and culture of Romanies in the Czech Republic, she added.
Curators have assembled authentic objects directly from Romany families, Polakova said.
“A collection of golden jewels of Olah Romanies is interesting as is a nomadic wagon and clothes of Romanies from various parts of Europe, including Finland,” Polakova said.
“The exhibition also displays the clothes of the closest Indian kin of Romanies,” Polakova said.
The first part of the permanent exhibition, opened to the public six years ago, describes the epoch after 1939.
Exhibits in the three new rooms guide visitors through the older history of Romanies, Polakova said.
A visitor first enters India at the end of the first millennium, at that time the ancient homeland of Romanies. This is followed by exhibits documenting Romanies’ wandering to Europe and their position in medieval society.
The visitors receive information on the community’s internal organisation, customs and traditional crafts.
There is also information on Romanies’ Holocaust and later fate.
With its topic and scope, the exhibition is unique in Central Europe and perhaps also in the world.
The history of the Romany Culture Museum dates back to 1991. Its establishment was prompted by a group of Romany as well as non-Romany intellectuals, now it is administered by the state.
(source: Prague Monitor)
Reconsidering Roma in a shifting Europe →
Louise Osborn, edited by Zulkifar Abbany
A new exhibition at Berlin’s Kunstquartier Bethanien hopes to raise awareness about Europe’s 12 million strong Roma and Sinti population - who despite widespread perceptions about what it is to be a “gypsy” remain a segregated and unrecognized people.
The show “Reconsidering Roma - Aspects of Roma and Sinti Life in Contemporary Art” - features diverse work such as Delaine Le Bas’ “Witch Hunt” and Daniel Baker’s “Mirrored Books.”
Many of the artists have a Roma or Sinti background and some have experienced discrimination first hand.
Viennese painter Karl Stojka and his sister Ceija Stojka are also on show at the exhibition with pieces which they hope will continue to chip away at what they say is a pervading silence about the crimes committed against Roma and Sinti during Nazi Germany.
Curators Lith Bahlmann and Matthias Reichelt say little is known about the Roma and Sinti on the international art scene and they want to change that.
“The effect of the Holocaust on the Roma community is not so well-known and [we’ve brought all this artwork together in one place because] we feel it’s very important to make the issue more visible,” said Bahlmann.
Haunting dolls of the Holocaust
It is an aspect of German history that has taken at least 60 years to gain a place on the national stage - let alone in the art world.
During this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27), Zoni Weisz became the first ever representative for Roma and Sinti communities to address the German parliament.
As a seven year old, Weisz escaped while being taken to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. In the Bundestag, he talked about the genocide of Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust.
But he also talked about the discrimination they face today.
The cultural segregation and discrimination felt by Roma and Sinti is reflected in the work on show in Berlin. It is hoped the work will reach beyond art and go on to influence the political and historical debate.
Featured artists Karl Stojka and his sister Ceija Stojka were themselves victims of the Nazis.
Karl first began breaking the silence he felt surrounded Nazi atrocities against Roma and Sinti through his painting in the 1980s. Ceija also deals with her experiences at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen in her drawings and paintings.
Le Bas - whose “Witch Hunt” series shows haunting, but vibrant dolls dressed in brightly colored clothing, and wearing masks to distort their faces - agrees that the experiences of Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust are not well known.
“The works here are very important because they will force people to recognize what happened,” Le Bas told Deutsche Welle. “I was interested in the witch hunts and did lots of research. There was this idea of people, who were seen as different, being used as scapegoats and the pieces evolved from that.”
No place is home
In post-war Europe, discrimination against Roma and Sinti continues.
Le Bas is the eldest of five children and was the only one of her siblings to go to secondary school in Britain. She says her family was often subject to discrimination and their home was once targeted by vandals, who spray-painted it.
“My mother was particularly upset,” said Le Bas. “Stereotypes are so ingrained. But I work in the visual arts because I hope it’s a way to get people to see Roma and Sinti in a different light.”
Like Le Bas, Daniel Baker is a Roma artist based in Britain.
“There is definitely still persecution happening in Europe, particularly in Italy and France,” Baker told Deutsche Welle. “The treatment of Roma by some governments goes relatively unchallenged. They don’t seem to be able to see that what happened in 1939 is happening still.”
Baker says this is partly because there is no real place of origin for Roma and Sinti.
“I think it’s a very threatening position,” he said. “Nation states seem to think Roma and Sinti have no legitimacy and they are treated as if they don’t fit in and don’t belong. It is an excuse.”
Baker’s work features reversed writing painted on glass, with silver or gold leave gilded onto the surface to create a mirrored background.
He says he uses the idea of reflection to challenge perceptions about Roma - to turn perceptions around.
“Lots of my work uses natural reflection because the mirrors symbolize the gypsy experience,” said Baker. “It is a real but also imagined space.”
The exhibition runs until December 11.
(source: Deutsch Welle)
Museum of Roma Culture presents complete Roma history
The Museum of Roma Culture in Brno is set to become the first in the world to present a permanent exhibition on the history of the Roma, covering life in their ancient homeland of India through today. Curators at the museum are completing their plans for a permanent exhibition on the topic. The museum already familiarizes visitors with the history of the Roma through its current permanent exhibition which describes the fates of members of the ethnic group after 1939 only. The new exhibition rooms will map an earlier period, Lucie Křížová told the Czech Press Agency. The Museum of Roma Culture is the only one of its kind - no other museum devoted exclusively to Romani culture exists anywhere else in the world. The museum was founded just after the 1989 Velvet Revolution by Romani intellectuals, most of whom had been part of the creation of the Union of Gypsies-Roma (Svaz Cikánů- Romů) in 1968, when the idea for the museum was first conceived. After 1989, the idea was actively implemented, but employees had to wait many years for their own building. Now they have a headquarters in Bratislavská street in Brno, a neighborhood with many Romani residents. Křížová says the museum is now working on the last construction alterations to the new exhibition spaces. As of September, the exhibition designers will start putting objects on display. The new rooms will be open to the public in December. The permanent exhibition will be open to the public and to school groups, who visit the museum already. The new permanent exhibition will be in six rooms covering 350 square meters. The displays will start with images from India at the end of the first millennium. People will see Indian clothing and other objects ordinarily in use and will learn about the cult of the goddess Kálí. The second room is devoted to Romani people as nomads against whom medieval towns shut their fortresses. “The main motif of the second room is an original wagon with original equipment,” Křížová said. The exhibit will also give visitors information about the internal organization of the Romani community in those days, their customs, and their traditional crafts. The next part of the exhibition will be devoted to Romani history during the 19th century and the First Republic era and will include a circus tent. The designers are promising an interactive exhibition with a minimum of static display cases. Visitors will be mainly impressed by the atmosphere created in each individual room. For those not be satisfied with basic information only, there will be a touch-screen computer enabling further study of the objects on display. Czech Press Agency, jb, translated by Gwendolyn Albert Source: Romea.cz
ROMEA
Gallery Kai Dikhas: Contemporary Art of the Roma and Sinti
© Galerie Kai Dikhas
Founded in april 2011, the gallery Kai Dikhas established a place for Contemporary Art of the Roma and Sinti in the Aufbau Haus in Berlin Kreuzberg and will show constantly changing exhibitions of Roma and Sinti from all over the world. It becomes „the place of seeing “, so the translation of the name of the gallery from Romany and as well a place of understanding between different cultures.
Roma and Sinti settled all around Europe, therefore they are multinational influenced but also connected with their home countries. The Galerie at the Moritzplatz helps to relieve prejudices and to honour the rich culture of Roma and Sinti.
The concept of the gallery is extended and supplemented by the Berlin-based Independent label ASPHALT TANGO, which has successfully specialized in the publication of music of the Roma of the Balkans as well as Rock, Psychedelic Folk and Electronica from Eastern Europe.
The gallery was opened with the exhibition “Camarón“ of the Catalan painter Lita Cabellut, followed by two other single exhibitions and one group exhibition till the end of the year.
Tue-Sat 11am-6pm
Prinzenstr. 85 D
10969 Berlin KREUZBERG
Tel.: +49 (0)30 - 343 993 08/09
Mail:info@kaidikhas.com
