Exhibition Opening: Views on Different Sides

By Mateo • 2 years ago

Jan
2023

25 January 2023, at 1 pm
Maribor Synagogue

In cooperation with members of the Roma community and photographer Jasmina Vidmar, the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., within the Slovenian Roma Route project, funded by the Ministry of Culture, has prepared a photographic exhibition entitled Views on Different Sides, which will be opened on Wednesday, 25 January at 13:00 in the entrance hall of the Maribor Synagogue.
The event also included a presentation of the international Romheritage project (http://romheritage.eu).

The exhibition was created as a cultural and artistic project of the participants in the training course entitled Fundamentals of Cultural Production, Event Organisation and Marketing, which is one of the five thematic strands of the project Slovenian Roma Route.

With the exhibition, we wanted to bring to the fore the beauty of women; Roma women. We wanted to show that Romani women do not have to be dressed in traditional clothes in order to stimulate a discourse about their possibilities, opportunities and the obstacles they face. We wanted to show their proud attitude, the pervasiveness of their gestures, the power and influence they have. We wanted others to see them for who they are; equal to others. Looking at the portraits, no one will know whether any of them cannot read or write, whether any of them married when they turned 14, or whether any of them graduated with honours from primary school. Because that is not what matters in accepting someone, in getting to know them, in giving them a chance. Because the aim is not to deepen the differences, but to understand that there are many parallels between us that we often, even inadvertently, ignore.

A woman covered by a headscarf appears as a motif within the exhibition. The veiled face attracts most attention because of the mystery that surrounds it. Because we don’t know why we can’t see the face, we don’t know who is hiding under the headscarf, but human nature craves for answers, it feeds on curiosity. We look for the person hiding underneath without really thinking about why they are hidden. We are only interested in who is hiding. What kind of eyes does he have? Does he have long or short hair? Is she smiling?

The photograph in question, by revealing very little, actually shows much more than all those faces staring at the camera, at least seemingly shamelessly. It shows a piece of reality. It tells the story of a person who remains hidden because of patriarchal practices within a community, within a society. It tells the story of how, even today, not all women in the Western world have the possibility of autonomous decision-making, but their decisions are often guided by others. Usually men. It tells a story of fear and shame, of how looking into the camera tarnishes the honour of a certain circle of people. If a woman is pictured. If she is visible to others. If she is exposed.

With this exhibition, we aim to make Romani women more visible. Understood. Accepted. That being part of a community has no impact on how we perceive them. That we, as a society, are more aware that we still have a long way to go to achieve the equality that exists on paper. To understand how to look at different sides.

»The Slovenian Roma Route is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union from the European Social Fund. It is implemented under the Operational Programme for the Implementation of the European Cohesion Policy 2014-2020, Priority Investment 9.1 Active inclusion, including the promotion of equal opportunities and active participation, and improving employability, Specific Objective 9.1.3 Preventing the slide into poverty or social exclusion and reducing health inequalities. «

About the author:

She started working in photography in the 1980s with the student newspaper Katedra. During this time she published photographs in the newspapers Teleks, Večer, Valter defends Sarajevo. In the early 90s he focuses on nude photography, which he defines as narratives of stories captured in women’s bodies. She publishes and presents them in the newspaper Večer, in the columns Punk is dead and Directions of development, and in numerous exhibitions, mostly in Maribor, but also in Ptuj, Škofja Loka, Koper, Izola, Lenart, Radovljica, Zagorje ob Savi, etc. As a member of the Photo Club Maribor, she also participated in a group exhibition of Maribor photographers in 1991. In 1992, she exhibited at the Trieste Gallery in Ronchi dei Legionari, Italy, and in 1993 at the Kapelica Gallery in Ljubljana. Her photographs appear in numerous books and manuals (Zbornik literatury i fotografij autorice mladše generācijas- Sirota Jerica nr.6:kobiet.si, ….), on occasional postcards (issued by the Women’s Network at the LDS on the occasion of the International Women’s Day on 8 March, etc.) and in many newspapers. 1995 she produced a photograph for the poster of the play Alma Karlin, organised by the Cankarjev dom and performed by Polona Vetrih.

She publishes reports with photographs in the newspapers Delo and Večer, and also provides photographic support for several other publications and newspapers.In 2011, he exhibited at the Zetra Hall in Sarajevo on the occasion of Nexpo 2011.In 2012, she presented an exhibition – Don’t Forget Me Ever – at the Maribor Regional Museum. Later, he also presents his photographs at the Museum of Contemporary History in Celje and the Regional Museum in Koper. At the beginning of 2018, she exhibits his lyrical and personal confessional photographic narrative – Prelude to Melancholy – in Domžale at the Menačenko Homestead and in Ruse as part of the Glazer Days. At the beginning of 2018, a book – Temporary residence – Na grad 25, IG, will be published, which she is photographically accompanying.

The book was produced within the framework of the project “We involve and activate (2016 – 2019), co-financed by the European Union from the European Social Fund and managed by the Slovenian Book Agency. As part of the promotion of the book, the photographs taken at the only women’s prison in Ig in 2018 are being exhibited at the Ig Prison, the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, the Cultural Centre in Domžale, the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana, the Regional Museum in Maribor and, in November, at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Ljubljana.