 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Budapest Sun Weekly, Hungary, June 13, 2007
Roma get their own Biennale pavilion
by Christine Rotter
The Biennale in Venice marks not only its 52nd anniversary this year, but also sees a new cultural step being taken with the opening of the first ever Roma Pavilion.
Being one of the first major events in the Decade of Roma inclusion and the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All 2007, the event has been much hyped by media, the art world and Roma rights agencies alike.
Held every two years, the Italian festa incorporates the Venice film festival and the Venice Architecture Biennale, and serves as a showcase for contemporary art from all over the world.
Pavilions usually represent individual countries and their talents, with the Mexican example being the newest addition this year, and this makes the Roma Pavilion all the more exclusive.
A joint project of the Open Society Institute in Hungary, the Allianz Kulturstiftung in Germany and the Dutch European Cultural Foundation, the pavilion is expected to receive numerous visitors.
Marketed on the official HYPERLINK "http://www.budapestsun.com/admin/www.romapavilion.org" www.romapavilion.org website as the "arrival of contemporary Roma culture on the international stage," it is set not only to "surprise and seduce audiences," as curator Tímea Junghaus put it, "but more to serve the tastes of the Roma."
Paradise Lost
Comprising works and installations from 16 artists from eight different countries, the exhibition has been named Paradise Lost and was officially opened on Thursday, June 7.
The artists featured hail from Finland, Romania, Great Britain and Hungary. Tibor Balogh, a Hungarian member of the team, expressed the group's emotions when he described what a great feeling it was "to be able to convey our thoughts to the world at large."
His installation, Rain of Tears, is a visually stunning collection of test tubes of "tears," displayed in trays and suspended in a cobweb of wire next to a box of newspaper cuttings which record the horrors of Gypsy discrimination during the Holocaust.
The work was first exhibited in 2004, and viewers were invited to collect their own tears in empty test tubes which they could also sign.
"We show our thoughts by using modern means like installation or video. We feel the need to reveal how we feel and outside the stereotype of naďve painting that Roma artists are generally associated with," Balogh added.
His work is next that of Finnish artist Kiba Lumberg, which takes the form of a giant black skirt entitled Black Butterfly, and is also in the same room as an installation by Szirmai and Révész. Slightly more country specific, their work is a DVD loop entitled Fradi is better, a reference to the Budapest-based football team FTC.
Other artworks include an interesting terracotta sculpture of obese proportions with a Barbie head by András Kállai entitled Fat Barbie (pictured); Roma Europe, 2007 which is an assortment of characteristic Gypsy facial features in mixed media covering a printed map by Damian Le Bas; and an installation of dolls and objects, created by Delaine Le Bas, and named Room at 28 St Elmo Road, which is eerie, but also strangely beautiful.
All the pieces are slightly haunting and mysterious, most pleasurable enough to look at but all with an underlying message. In the words of Delaine Le Bas on her own work, "It is like a fairy tale, all very pretty on the outside, but holding dark tales."
Whether Hungarian society, or, indeed, European society as a whole, is ready for such an exhibition still remains to be seen.
Discrimination is still widespread in the country according to a Reuters article on HYPERLINK "http://www.budapestsun.com/admin/www.romadecade.com" www.romadecade.com "and the European Union says Hungary is among the three worst offenders in the 25-nation bloc in terms of housing segregation."
Roma still face obstacles in terms of education, which makes the presence of Tibor Balogh particularly significant, as he was the first ever Roma to graduate from the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts and his piece in the Biennale was his first significant piece to go on display in the Modern Art Gallery in Budapest.
In fact it seems that nearly all the Hungarian artists chosen are there to encourage their counterparts in some way. Kallai is inspirational in his move to western Europe after graduation from the same academy Balogh attended, Omara for opening the first Roma gallery in her home of Kispest, and Szentandrassy for having become the leader of a school which was created in the early 1980s by Tamás Péli, who has been called "the prophet of Hungarian Roma art."
Debate
Whether created to educate or console, to give strength, or inspire pity, the pavilion will remain open until late November and is sure to draw more comment and fuel further debate.
Although a panel of experts sought to answer questions at the exhibition's opening on whether this first Biennale pavilion created on ethnic lines will do more to help or hinder the ethnic cause behind it, and how it will affect further social integration, almost everyone will have his or her own opinion.
The general Habermasian philosophical view that more talking leads to higher understanding can be predicted to triumph only as a result of the exhibition, and, if the audience feels any pressure to praise or risk being dismissed as bigots, "that's their problem," says Daniel Baker, a British born contributor.
According to curator Junghaus "it is our belief that the identity of the Roma serves as a model for a modern, European transnational identity that is capable of cultural fusion and adaptation to changing circumstances. This is how the invited artists represent themselves and this is how they experience their Gypsy identity."
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
