Web Launch of the Roma Media Archive www.romamediaarchive.net

UNESCO, Palazzo Zorzi, Castello 4930 - Venezia
3rd June 2011 at 13:00

Presented by participating artists of the Roma Media Archive

In the context of:

Call the Witness, Roma Pavilion Collateral Event, Live Testimonies

54th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, 2011

The Roma Media Archive is an accumulation of artistic, documentary and activist works produced by a wide range of Roma and not Roma artists. The varied and multi-disciplinary approach of these works shows everyday life and urgent issues that Roma communities and individuals are facing in contemporary society. Presented on this platform are many works; some which challenge racist images about Roma; or show Roma living with oppression and prejudice; there are also both individual and community based projects; which overall, in their breadth and complexity add a broader social, political and artistic context to the work physically displayed in the Roma Pavilion.

This project was originally initiated by Suzana Milevska, a theorist and curator, who is based in Skopje, Macedonia. She has invited a worldwide range of participating artists, to share their archives, as testimonials of their research endeavours, in solidarity with the Roma people.

This project and web-platform will also continue long after the Venice Biennale as an open collaborative and participatory project for the accumulation of Roma and non-Roma artists work. Outreach programs are envisaged to bring various works back to the Roma communities where they were first produced.

Participating artists include:

Bruce Barber, Katalin Barsony, Cristiano Berti, Bodvalenke Fresco Project, Tina Carr, Edouard Chiline, Hannah Collins, Leone Contini, Nigel Dickinson, Konstantina Drakopoulou, EU- Roma, Eduard Freudmann, Alexandra Gulea, Maria Kjartans, Marta Kotlarska, Ivana Marjanovic, Dusko Miljanic, Malgorzata Mirga-Tas, Tanja Ostojic, Nihad Nino Pusija, Claudia Radulescu, Eva Sajovic, Marika Schmiedt, Annemarie Schöne, Hedina Tahirović Sijerčić, Manuela Zanotti.

Contact e-mail: info@romamediaarchive.net