Cultural Urgencies: Actions toward representation, equity, justice, well-being
This roundtable series, organised and hosted by the Decolonising Art Institute Research Fellows, draws together their varied but overlapping concerns with representation, equity, justice and well-being in the fields of visual culture, higher education and art institutions. Issues around historical and cultural narrative production, power relations, welfare, and inclusive communication will be variously explored and with an emphasis on impacting change.
Roma Lives: Reflections on Art and Visual Culture
Recorded on 23 March 2021
Dr Ileana-Lucia Selejan hosts a conversation with scholars and activists around Roma rights as reflected in art and visual culture, reflecting on the ongoing marginalisation of Roma communities and individuals, made immediately urgent in the Covid-19 crisis.
Speakers:
Cristiana Grigore is a writer, a Fulbright research scholar and the founder of the Roma Peoples Project at Columbia University, an initiative that spotlights Roma peoples and expands Roma studies by examining topics such as identity and stigma, mobility and displacement. Herself a Roma, she has first-hand experience with internalized stigma. Her writing was published by the New York Times and she writes periodic op-eds for Newsweek and other media channels. Her work has been featured by Vogue, NPR, CNN, Al Jazeera America, PRI, and Voice of America.
Daniel Baker is an artist, curator and researcher. A Romani Gypsy, born in Kent, he holds a PhD on the subject of Gypsy aesthetics from the Royal College of Art, London. Baker curated FUTUROMA at the 58th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2019. He acted as exhibitor and adviser to the first and second Roma Pavilions; Paradise Lost and Call the Witness at the 52nd and 54th Venice Biennales respectively. Publications include WE ROMA: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art, Ex Libris and FUTUROMA. Daniel Baker is the former Chair of the Gypsy Council.
Delaine Le Bas is a cross disciplinary artist creating installations, performances, photography, and films. Most recently creating a new installation of works 'St Sara Kali George' for Berlin Biennale 2020. Works were included in Venice Biennale in 2019 for FUTUROMA & Paradise Lost The First Roma Pavilion Venice Biennale 2007, Athens Biennale 2018, Off Biennale Budapest 2015, Gwangju Biennale 2012, Prague Biennale 2005 & 2007. Delaine created the costumes for Roma Armee 2017 & ReWitching Europe 2019 at Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin. Delaine is currently Guest Professor at University Of The Arts Berlin.
Ethel Brooks is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology at Rutgers University. She is the author of Unraveling the Garment Industry: Transnational Organizing and Women’s Work. Brooks is currently working on two book projects: Disrupting the Nation: Land Tenure, Productivity and Possibilities of a Romani Post-Coloniality, and (Mis)Recognitions and (Un)Acknowledgements: Visualities, Productivities and the Contours of Romani Feminism, both of which focus on political economy and cultural production and the increasing violence against Romani (Gypsy) citizens worldwide.
Jane Collins is Professor of Theatre and Performance at Wimbledon College of Art. She is a writer, director and theatre-maker who works all over the UK and internationally. Collins collaborated with Ethel Brooks during her AHRC funded residency project “Performing Romani Identities: Strategy and Critique.” She is founding member of UAL Performance Network, an interdisciplinary network of artists who run workshops and performance related events across the university, and co-editor of the new Routledge journal Theatre and performance design.
Thumbnail design: Francesca Ceconi
Image credit: Self Portrait, Gypsy Girl With A Gun After Sven Berlin 18.10.2017 | Image by Delaine Le Bas
