30 July – 2 August, 2015
EPEKA Gallery&Romani kafenava, Maribor
Romani kafenava and the the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., are organising a central Slovenian cultural event in the framework of the Day of Remembrance of the Roma Genocide, which is commemorated on 2 August and is also endorsed by the European Parliament’s Resolution of 15 April 2015 on the occasion of the International Day of the Roma.
In May 1944, the Nazis began planning the “Final Solution” for the “Gypsy Family Camp” in Auschwitz. The starting date for the liquidation of the “Gypsy Camp” was planned for 16 May. The prisoners in the camp were ordered to remain in the barracks. They were guarded by 60 armed soldiers, members of the Waffen-SS. When the SS tried to drive the prisoners out of the barracks, they were confronted with a resistance of Roma men, women and children armed with nothing more than sticks, work tools and stones. This caused the SS to withdraw, and their organised resistance gave them only a few more months to live.
The Nazis feared that the uprising would spread to other parts of the camp and therefore planned a “Final Solution”. On the orders of the head of the Waffen-SS, Heinrich Himmler, a ban was imposed on leaving the barracks in the “Gypsy Camp” on the evening of 2 August. Despite the resistance of the Roma, 2,897 men, women and children were loaded onto trucks and taken to gas cell number V and gassed. Their bodies were burned in pits next to the crematorium. After the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945, only four Roma survivors are recorded.
As part of the promotion for the European Roma Capital and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., is organising a cultural commemorative event with an artistic, musical and film programme.
Nimaš pojma ali jaz jsem Selma Selman / You have no Idea or I am Selma Selman
30 July 2015 at 7 pm
EPEKA Gallery, Koroška cesta 8, Maribor
On Thursday, 30 July 2015, EPEKA Gallery opens an exhibition of the renowned Roma contemporary artist Selma Selman.
The exhibition opens at 7 pm.
The concept is rooted in my identity as a woman, Bosnian and Roma artist and all its complexities. The exhibition is an introduction to my artistic practice, which for the most part is performative in nature, but not exclusively. In most of my work, I myself am the main protagonist, representing and clarifying aspects of everyday life in my community that the general public usually and most likely does not have inside.
The issue of Roma inclusion has been a very sensitive topic for a long time all over Europe. Through the traditions and customs of my culture, I try to paint pictures, create videos and photographs that are distinctive and offer an insight into my roots on the one hand, but on the other hand also represent life in the 21st century as a Roma artist who is also a woman. My practice is therefore a reflection of my surroundings and reality, showing the harshness and day-to-day life. Sometimes this reality can be very difficult, but I have always tried to channel this suffering into my art and to learn from every experience I encounter in my life.
Identity has been a theme in the world of contemporary art for almost three decades. Not everyone who is familiar with the Roma population knows us, knows our stories and experiences and understands the view beyond the stereotypes, which are usually negative.
I see my role as someone who educates the public about an existence that is different from the norm and what that means; that the artist comes first and then the Roma woman. Through my work, I want to tell stories to the professional and lay public that are often presented in a humorous artistic way, overcoming the triple barriers of being a woman in a distinctly masculine culture, being Bosnian and then being Roma.
The group of four video works include Don’t Look in Gypsy Eyes, Roma Performing with a Flag and Got a Boyfriend? All engage through different perspectives on Roma identity, issues of citizenship, femininity and superstition that permeate each moving frame.
The photographs in the Mercedes 310 series are glamorous self-portraits in my family’s old van. I was interested in showing the contrast between my image as a beautiful, well-dressed artist and a dilapidated old van on which my family’s livelihood depends. When I was growing up, I wore gloves similar to the ones in the photograph. They were part of my equipment when I was picking up old metal for resale. That was how I helped my relatives. The difference between ‘gypsy life’ and ‘artist life’ is on opposite spectrums of existence; I share both.
The installation Paintings on Metal, 2014 is a group of ten paintings made on discarded pieces of iron, aluminium or brass. Each piece is a part of my life, whether they are portraits of my family members, self-portraits or scenes from my community. Conceptually, found metal has been and still is an integral part of my life, providing sustenance for my family, and my childhood and consequently the surface of these paintings revolve around it.
The covered installation consists of a myriad of small paintings on caps containing text and painted with motifs from popular culture. Each piece is separately very simple and all the sayings are written in colloquial and humorous language, such as “The 1245 marks debt is not Mine”, “You are only good when you suck dick”, “We fuck, steal and make babies”, etc.
The 16,000-parts video installation consists of a video set in an old Mercedes. The video gives an insight into my family’s life, but it mainly deals with communication and how it affects everyday life. This video was not staged or scripted, it is a stream of consciousness coming from my family members and their perceptions towards money and debt. It is something that every family deals with in one way or another and I am presenting it in the form of an artwork.
Performens You have no idea is a live performance that will take place in the corner of the gallery and will last for one hour. The phrase “You have no idea” is repeated over and over again. This performance is of a very intimate nature and is about my life as a whole. The audience cannot have a complete picture of my life, who I am, how happy or sad I am, whether or not there has been pain in my life, or how I feel at this moment when I am in the middle of performing in front of an audience. Although this part relates to circumstances I have felt in my life that they can be very universal at the same time, because we cannot really know how people really feel at every moment of their existence.
Gypsy Mafia (Zrenjanin, Serbia)
2 August 2015 at 7 pm
Romani kafenava, Gorkega 34, Maribor
“I AM ROMANI AND I AM MUCH OLDER,
NECU VIŠE LISTEN TO YOUR DEAD WITNESSES.
THIS IS MY LIFE AND I LOVE WHAT I WANT,
I’M GOING TO MAKE MY OWN SEPARATIONS FROM THE SET”.
It is true that the group is called Gipsy Mafia, but far from being gangster boys or connected with crime. Since 2006, the brothers Skill and Budy O.G. (Original Gypsy) have been exploiting and using RAP as a means of expressing their views, using music to draw public attention to the position of Roma in society, to speak quite openly about fascism and, of course, about their own lives and upbringing. They have released two demo albums “Hip Hop Gypsies”, “Mafia Ne Miruje”, a mixtape “The Hip Hop Connection”, followed by the album “Gypsy Business”, and in Maribor they will present their latest product “Straight Outta Mahala”. As a supporting act, fellow Serbian rapper Digital Warfare will join the concert.
You will be able to see an extraordinary concert of one of the most radical Roma bands on Sunday, 2 August at Romana Kafenava. You are cordially invited!
More about them can be found at:
Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/Guncy85
Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/GipsyMafia
Bandcamp Link: https://gipsymafia.bandcamp.com/album/ciganska-posla-2
20.30 Watching the film And the Violins Stopped Playing
The Violins Stopped Playing is a Polish-American historical drama film written, produced and directed by Alexander Ramati, based on his biographical novel about a group of Roma living in Poland who were forced to flee persecution by the Nazi regime at the height of the Porajmos (Roma Holocaust), during World War II.
This is the true story of a group of Roma in occupied Poland during the Second World War, facing the horrors and tragedies of the forgotten Holocaust.
We co-create, you, her, all of us
3 August from 10.00 to 12.00
Romani kafenava, Gorkega 34, Maribor
The ‘Soustvarjamo’ workshops are organised by EKTC Maribor in cooperation with the Association EPEKA , Soc. Ent., inviting young people and all generations to create together a message to the city about the importance of cooperation. The result will be a shared canvas painting and other games of socialising and experimenting.
The event is supported by the EU programme Europe for Citizens, the Municipality of Maribor, the Slovenian Youth Office and JSKD.
There is no entrance fee.
For more information visit www.epeka.si / www.romani-kafenava.si / www.facebook.com/romanikafenava / www.facebook.com/epeka.slovenia
Event coordinator: Štefan Simončič, President of the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., stefan@epeka.si.
Event promotion: Tjaša Teržan, the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., associate, tjasa@epeka.si.
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