{"id":9259,"date":"2018-08-17T15:37:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T13:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/?post_type=program_item&p=9259"},"modified":"2018-08-17T15:44:04","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T13:44:04","slug":"call-the-witness-roma-pavilion","status":"publish","type":"program_item","link":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/nl\/program-item\/call-the-witness-roma-pavilion\/","title":{"rendered":"Call the Witness, Roma Pavilion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Call the Witness<\/em>\u00a0is a project of the Roma Pavilion, which takes place as a collateral event in the framework of the 54th International Art Exhibition \u2013 La Biennale di Venezia 2011. A makeshift exhibition evolving over the course of the Venice Biennale preview days through the flux of live \u201ctestimonies\u201d\u2014 works of art, performances, talks, and conversations by and with artists, thinkers, and politicians\u2014Call the Witness<\/em>c onsiders the situation of the Roma and Roma art as emblematic of a world filled with inequality and oppression today, and in solidarity with the largest minority in Europe speculates about another, hopeful future.<\/p>\n

Call the Witness<\/em>\u00a0includes contributions by, among others:\u00a0Thomas Acton\u00a0(Emeritus Professor of Romani Studies, United Kingdom);\u00a0Daniel Baker\u00a0&\u00a0Paul Ryan\u00a0(artists, United Kingdom);\u00a0Maud de Boer-Buquicchio(Deputy Secretary General, Council of Europe, France);\u00a0Cristinela Ionescu\u00a0(journalist and TV producer, Romania);\u00a0Milutin Jovanovic\u00a0(film director, Serbia);\u00a0Ferdinant Koci\u00a0(artist, Albania\/United Kingdom);\u00a0Robert Kushen\u00a0(Roma rights activist, United States);\u00a0Lynn Hutchinson Lee\u00a0(artist, Canada) &\u00a0Hedina Tahirovic Sijercic(artist and author, Bosnia and Herzegovina) (chirikli collective);\u00a0Kiba Lumberg\u00a0(artist, Finland);\u00a0Tom McDonough\u00a0(art historian, United States);\u00a0Roseanna T. McPhee\u00a0(educator and activist, United Kingdom); Shamus McPhee (artist, United Kingdom);\u00a0Aernout Mik\u00a0(artist, The Netherlands); Boris Ondreicka (artist, Slovakia);\u00a0Tanja Ostojic\u00a0(artist, Serbia\/Germany);\u00a0Nihad Nino Pusija\u00a0(artist, Bosnia and Herzegovina\/Germany);\u00a0Salman Rushdie\u00a0(author, United Kingdom\/United States);\u00a0Marika Schmiedt\u00a0(artist, Austria);\u00a0George Soros\u00a0(financier and philanthropist, United States);\u00a0Stalker\/ON\u00a0(art and architecture collective, Italy);\u00a0Alfred Ullrich\u00a0(artist, Germany);\u00a0Mona Vatamanu\u00a0&\u00a0Florin Tudor\u00a0(artists, Romania); and\u00a0Zelimir Zilnik\u00a0(film producer, Serbia).<\/p>\n

Having found its inspiration in the judicial practice of Kris-Romani\u2014a traditional Roma court as well as a forum for conflict resolution and the mediation of disputes, which exists within some Roma communities\u2014the project calls on Roma artists to bear witness, through works of art, to their communities\u2019 struggles as they are caught in the paradox of being at once assigned to the edges of mainstream society and at the center of this society\u2019s discriminatory order of control. One needs only to think of recent political events that have specifically targeted the Roma, such as deportations, forcible repatriation, and ethnic registration in many nations in Europe. Yet rather than engaging in accusations and finger-pointing or putting the victimization of others on display, the \u201cproceedings\u201d and \u201cdeliberations\u201d in the Roma Pavilion are meant to function as propositions, both poetic and political, for how one could envision the restoration of mutual respect, ensure the future coexistence of parties in conflict, and inspire the acceptance of differences as a key ingredient of the very possibility of being together.<\/p>\n

Bringing an ethos of dialogue and negotiation into the context of the Venice Biennale, an institution imbued with\u2014and even constituted from\u2014the highly problematic and exclusionary structures of nationalism and national representation, the Roma Pavilion offers its transnational, even extra-national, character in a modest attempt to counteract the widespread hostility towards Roma communities found across Europe today. In a spirit of reciprocity, hospitality, and inclusion, an invitation to contribute to the Roma Pavilion has been extended to artists, thinkers, and activists of both Roma and non-Roma origin, who through their practice recognize that the very condition the Roma communities find themselves in is in fact exemplary of the state of the world we all find ourselves in.<\/p>\n

The site of the project\u2014partly a space for an imaginary court to unfold, partly a conference and performance stage, and at the same time a broadcasting studio of sorts, as well as, most importantly, an exhibition venue\u2014is in itself an artistic interpretation of a visionary artwork by Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920\u20132005).[1] In 1956\u20131958, Constant elaborated a design for a nomadic camp for Roma families, who had been driven out of the Italian city of Alba. His friend artist Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio had offered the Roma families refuge on his land, and this gesture of hospitality and solidarity prompted fellow artist Constant to help to envision its architectural plan. Embedded in the Roma way of life, Constant\u2019s project\u00a0Design for a Gypsy Camp<\/em>\u00a0was in fact a paradoxical proposition for a nomadic settlement, merging the contradictory desires for unrestricted mobility and the need for a base for living. However Constant went further than planning a Roma community site; it was here that his radical ideas regarding the itinerant character of future generations to come were born (and these considerations were the foundation of his infamous work\u00a0New Babylon<\/em>\u00a0(1956\u20131974). Deeply inspired by his experience, Constant went so far as to claim that like the Roma, we too\u2014indeed everyone\u2014are caught as if simultaneously inside and outside of the hegemonic order, \u201c\u2026becoming nomads once more, wandering over the earth, not looking for rest but for dynamic motion.\u201d Envisioned as an open system of mobile walls and spiraling wires on a circular platform, Constant\u2019s model\u00a0Design for a Gypsy Camp<\/em>[2] put forward a radical invitation to otherness and embraced alterity as a pivotal prerequisite for the possibility of another, better world.<\/p>\n

Fifty odd years later, there is little if anything that the majority population has learned and adopted from the generous spirit of artistic experimentation and intellectual thinking about the way of life of the Roma people. Instead, in today\u2019s Europe members of the Roma community, whose fate links to other outcast populations living on the margins of western society\u2014from guest workers to refugees\u2014discriminated against on all possible levels, from education to health care to housing to job possibilities.<\/p>\n

This situation, so it at least seems to me, presents the field of art and intellectual practice with renewed urgency. It brings an essential question to mind: if the space of art is indeed where the world could be imagined otherwise than as we now know it could it be that, against all odds, the Roma Pavilion\u2014which does not belong exclusively to any one nation\u2014provides us with the possibility and an invitation to make it everyone\u2019s? After the Roma artists have actively taken a stand to claim their right to speak out and narrate the injustices of the contemporary moment, it is the task of all of us not only to listen but also to carry the vision of another world into another future.<\/p>\n

Maria Hlavajova, Artistic Director<\/p>\n

Endnotes:<\/p>\n

[1] Dutch artist\u00a0Aernout Mik\u00a0has reinterpreted Constant\u2019s _Design for a Gypsy Camp _in the context of the Roma Pavilion project.<\/p>\n

[2] Though the plan was never realized, a model of Constant\u2019s\u00a0Design for a Gypsy Camp<\/em>\u00a0has been carefully preserved as part of the collection of the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

This project is the outcome of a truly collective effort. Of course my sincere thanks go to all the participating artists, thinkers, and activists who have taken a stand and offered their testimonies in the context of the Roma Pavilion. Specifically, I would like to thank Suzana Milevska, who came up with the original idea and titleCall the Witness<\/em>, and who invited a number of Roma artists to take part in the project. She also curated an exhibition of the same title at BAK, Utrecht. I would like to also thank\u00a0Tom McDonough, who pointed out Constant\u2019s\u00a0Design for a Gypsy Camp<\/em>\u00a0to me, and offered inspiration and intellectual guidance in understanding its importance. Crucial in putting together the testimonies was\u00a0Daniel Baker, without whose knowledge, patience, and support the project would not have been possible, and to whom I would like to express my deepest gratitude. Last but not least I gratefully acknowledge commitment, dedication, and at times even courage, shown by all those individuals and institutions\u2014including the entire BAK team\u2014who contributed to the project, financially and otherwise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For more information, see the project’s digital archive\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Call the Witness\u00a0is a project of the Roma Pavilion, which takes place as a collateral event in the framework of the 54th International Art Exhibition \u2013 La Biennale di Venezia 2011. A makeshift exhibition evolving over the course of the Venice Biennale preview days through the flux of live \u201ctestimonies\u201d\u2014 works of art, performances, talks, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9260,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9259","program_item","type-program_item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_item\/9259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program_item"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_item\/9259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12512,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_item\/9259\/revisions\/12512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive2.bakonline.org\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}