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First Roma Pavilion presented in London
London, November 16, 2007 –- Time of the Gypsies? was an evening of debate, art and
music organized in the London’s Frontline
Club on November 16.
One of the purposes of the event put together by the Media
Diversity Fund, The First Roma Pavilion, OSF-London, and the Italian partner ArteFacta,
was to present the Pavilion to those on the London art scene who could not
visit Venice this summer.
Virtual presentation of the Roma Pavilion, designed by
ArteFacta, the author of the Virtual
Biennale project, was hosted by Delaine Le Bas, one of the artists
presented in Paradise Lost, and ArteFacta Director Stefano Scialotti.
Stefano Scialotti introduced the Virtual Biennale project
featuring more then 360 short movies about various pavilions at the 52nd Venice Biennale, posted on the ArteFacta
website. After the short presentation, Stefano Scialotti zoomed into the
Roma Pavilion by using the Google Map of Venice broadcasted on a big screen in
the Frontline Club.
In a matter of seconds the Google map was replaced by one
of the ten ArteFacta movies featuring the Roma Pavilion. The camera, from the perspective of a
visitor walking into the Pavilion and viewing the exhibition, was slowly moving
over the artworks, followed by music especially composed for the project…
Delaine Le Bas was simultaneously introducing the artists
featured on the films, and their art.
The presentation was followed by numerous questions. One
of the guests in the audiencewas Paolo De Grandis, art curator from Venice, who
happened to be in London at the time of the event. He spoke about the
development of the idea of Biennale’s collateral events (Roma Pavilion is one
of them), which originated only several years ago and in the meantime became a
significant part of the Biennale.
Paolo De Grandis emphasized the importance of the First Roma
Pavilion and the way in which it challenged the Biennale’s nation-state structure.
The other purpose of the event was to engage in a debate
about the portrayal of Roma in the UK media and the persisting romantic and/or
demonizing stereotypes perpetuated about them by the mainstream media.
The media panel that started after a short break had the
following speakers: Delaine le Bas, British
artist represented at Paradise Lost-The First Roma Pavilion at the Venice Biennale; Jake Bowers, Romani journalist, presenter of Rokker
Radio, BBC; Orhan Galjus, Romani
activist, film producer and journalist, Kosovo/The Netherlands; Clair Frachon,
PANOS Institute Paris. Moderator was Joy
Frances, Managing Director, The Creative Collective, London.
Each of the panelists gave a specific introduction into
the topic, from the point of view of an artist (Le Bas), activist (Galjus),
researcher (Frachon), journalist and activist (Bowers).
A review of the British tabloids’ reporting on Roma
provided by Jake Bowers was a sad eye-opener. The way that the Sun (the
daily with one of the largest number of teenage readers in the UK) writes about
the travelers would be impossible in most, if any, of the Central and Eastern
European tabloids, except maybe in far-right publications.
After the debate Gabi Jimenez played guitar and two DJs
spun international Gypsy music till late evening.
The house was full from 6pm when the virtual presentation
of the Pavilion started, until 11pm when the last music-lovers left.
The room, which accommodates 130, was constantly
full. The audience was frequently
changing, with different visitors coming to see particular segments of the
program and leaving to free place for newcomers to join.
Among them were many art lovers, university professors
from Roma or journalism departments, representatives of civil society, Roma
people, and the media.
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