Self-reflection, self-examination and even self-doubt play a significant role in artistic processes. Self-portraits serve as a means of expression for artists and have become an important genre in their own right within art history. They can be an expression of doubt, but also of self-assured self-representation.
Many self-portraits can also be found amongst the works of the artists with whom Kai Dikhas collaborates. Art becomes a mirror and an expression of one’s own reality, and so the genre of the self-portrait is virtually predestined for an exhibition in a venue that serves as a platform for the art of the Sinti and Roma – in other words, a platform for self-representation. For it is precisely self-portraits that counter external perceptions and through which artists assert themselves. It is the art of these artists that creates a self-image that powerfully contradicts stereotypical and often racist portrayals.
Venice has become the focal point for the recent history of self-representation by Sinti and Roma artists since the first Sinti and Roma pavilion, ‘Paradise Lost’ – curated and initiated by Tímea Junghaus in 2007 and shown as a ‘collateral event’ as part of the 52nd Venice Biennale.
Alongside the self-portraits by artists from the Kai Dikhas Collection, the exhibition features key works from the collection that have formed part of the various exhibitions in Venice, ranging from ‘Paradise Lost’ in 2007, curated by Tímea Junghaus, to ‘Call the Witness’ in 2011, curated by Maria Hlavajova based on an idea by Suzanna Milevska, 2019’s ‘FUTUROMA’, curated by Dr Daniel Baker; 2022’s ‘The Abduction from the Seraglio’, curated by Ilina Schileru; right through to the Kai Dikhas Foundation’s ‘RʳOMA LEPANTO’ exhibition in 2024, curated by Moritz Pankok.
The exhibition aims to reinforce the call for a permanent venue for Sinti and Roma art and culture in Venice, which the artists and stakeholders – the ROMA PROJECT SPACE VENICE – have repeatedly demanded and articulated at two conferences in 2024 and, most recently, in October 2026 in Venice.
