Zachęta – National Gallery of Art

curator: Monika Weychert Waluszko
collaboration on the part of Zachęta: Magdalena Komornicka
collaboration: Tomasz Koper
assistance to the work by Aernout Mik: Emile Miedema, Martijn Rooker

Although Roma people live among us, there are a lot of issues that divide us. Most of all, it is our perception of the mentioned ethnically-foreign co-inhabitants. The exhibition presents, among others, the collection of clichѐ representations: etchings, photographs and paintings (from 19th to 20th century), which reflect stereotypical image of the Roma in Polish art. ‘... the colonising act of European majorities toward the Roma, is the most visible and evident’* (Timea Junghaus). Works of contemporary artists from different countries provide possibilities to go beyond stereotypes. Problems that the exhibition touches upon include: hidden integration vs. forced assimilation, nomadism as a possible social alternative, the notion of ‘Gypsiness’, and the voice of the Roma community in the discussion on extermination. A common ground for many aforementioned problems is constituted by architecture.

Long absence of social, political or even historical comment on Polish-Roma relations is striking, especially that the said relations are fraught with misunderstanding, intolerance and random acts of violence. In 2013 Polish nationalists triggered riots in Wrocław aimed at burning a Roma camp. In Andrychów local people demanded displacement of their Roma neighbours. Polish context is particularly interesting because of the artistic milieu, which – although usually socially sensitive – has not yet referred to the racism present right next to us. While stories untold have much bigger potential and force than those constantly repeated and reinterpreted. Such is the role of the exhibition held at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art – to make the marginalized Roma problem a part of the main social, political, economic or aesthetic discourse, and thus to make Roma people present in Polish society – to fight their invisibility.

*quote come from texts published in the book Romano kher. O romskiej sztuce, estetyce i doświadczeniu accompanying the exhibition

Artists: Neal Adams, Daniel Baker, Delaine Le Bas, W. Beechey, H. Boagaerts, Tadeusz Borowski, Bownik, Olga Boznańska, Kazimierz Czapiński, Hubert Czerepok, Maria Demiter, Dengler, Jerzy Dorożyński, Marcelina Gunia, Jerzy Ficowski, Wojciech Gerson, Maksymilian Gierymski, Edward Gorazdowski, Marcelina Gunia, Wojciech Jerzy Has, John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfelde), Anna Kamińska, Juliusz Kossak, Antoni Kozakiewicz, Jan Krajewski, Ignacy Krieger, Joe Kubert, Aleksandra Kubiak, Stan Lee, Leon Lewkowicz, Jerzy Litwora, Iain McKell, Aernout Mik, Karol Młodnicki, Jana Müller, Janusz Nel Siedlecki, Edward Nicz, Constant (born Constant Nieuwenhuys), Krystyn Olszewski, Igor Omulecki & Payam Sharifi, R. Paulussen, Antoni Piotrowski, Michał Pociecha, Dorota Podlaska, Jerzy Potrzebowski, Izabella Rapf-Sławikowska, Francis Reisz, Tadeusz Rolke, Marek Rudowski, Julian Schübeler, Zygmunt Sidorowicz, Władysław Siwek, Jan Styfi, Tomasz Tomaszewski, Bruce Weber, Alex Wedding (born Grete Weiskopf), Mateusz Wiśniewski, Piotr Wójcik, Andrzej Zajkowski and anonymous.