Unveiling Memories Exploring Landscapes, Healing Rituals and Mutual Spaces
Orality and an oral tradition mean more than simply ‘telling stories’. They are the means by which the cultural and historical memory of a community is preserved.
DThe oral storytelling by narrators from Roma communities has been increasingly documented, including by Roma themselves, since the 1950s. The storytellers usually decide what they present and to which audience in the respective situation. They also determine what is documented permanently. The fact of a performance being recorded may influence the narrator’s decision about what to tell in detail. Narrators may, for example, decide against presenting a risqué episode or interjecting a coarse expression.
Is oral culture a form of resistance and transmission of a community’s past and present? And is it linked to an in-visible archive of rituals and superstitions? We can try to understand our history or the history of others by precisely looking or listening to a record, but still what is not present and performed, remains unsaid. Hence, an archive simply becomes a documentation that we can infinitely interpret in multiple ways, shaped by the influences that lead our research. Thus, no matter how comprehensive the documentation may be, it can never claim to be exhaustive!
The exhibition Unveiling Memories aims to urgently challenge misunderstandings and stereotypes, while offering an opportunity to create mutual spaces of meaningful memories.
The installations and works in this exhibition focus on how the inscription and meaning of landscapes and spaces are preserved through memory. Such as the works of Marina Rosselle whose evocative creations take us into a world where memories are intertwined with the physical environment, or Mihaela Drăgan’s ‘Spells for feminist futures’, where the radical practice of performative healing rituals offer a glimpse into a feminist future where oppression is deconstructed . Through sound, photos and performance, the artists navigate themes to heal in our contemporary time. Viewing the body as both archive and projection screen for collective narratives. While the works of Nino Pušija and Malgorzata Mirga Tas challenge the external stereotypes of Roma culture with touching depictions of everyday life, at the same time Jelena Savić’s poems and performance confront the notion of supremacy of European gadje, delving into the complexities of whiteness in Europe and challenging entrenched systems of privilege. Opening up the question of the politics of memory, intertwined in the interplay between power dynamics and spatial configurations within contemporary society, Iranian artist Farokh Falsafi weaves his story into a dialogue with the Kai Dikhas collection and the exhibiting Roma artists, proposing an installation that traverses the realms of language, built environments and mechanisms of social control. The exhibition Unveiling Memories brings together poets and artists in the Kai Dikhas Foundation, whose contributions illuminate the multifaceted nature of cultural, political, and philosophical practices.
PROGRAM: 6pm Opening 6.30pm Performance of Jelena Savić 7.30pm Collective healing ritual – “Spells for Feminist Futures” of Mihaela Drăgan 8pm Healing ritual one per one of Mihaela Drăgan 9pm Performance “Remembering Skywoman Falling” of Franziska Anastasia Lentes 9.30pm DJ Dirty cash
