Seminar: Archivieren, Sammeln und Ausstellen durch Rom*nja – eine widerständige Praxis? (Archiving, Collecting, and Exhibiting by Rom*nja – a Practice of Resistance?)

The seminar is being held by Pegah Byroum-Wand and Lukas Fuchsgruber from the research project Museums & Society for bachelor’s and master’s Art Studies students at TU Berlin.

“Ein eigenes romani-Archiv ist erforderlich, weil die Geschichte(n) von Rom*nja öffentlich entweder rassistisch verallgemeinert oder gar nicht erzählt werden.” (A dedicated Romani archive is necessary because the story(s) of Rom*nja are either racially generalized or not told at all in public.) Isidora Randjelović (RomaniPhen feminist archive)

The lives, biographies, and culture of Rom*nja are discriminated against and suppressed. What does this mean for art history? In this block seminar we will be working with exhibitions, collections, and archives organized and established by Rom*nja. We are interested in how this work represents a political practice of resistance. Our examples will include artworks and exhibitions, as well as scholarly/activist research and archives, and the intersection between these two fields. We will invite and engage with local activists. In preparation for this and in general, it is therefore important that we take a power-critical self-reflexive attitude in the seminar. We will document the results of the block seminar (in, e.g., a blog, a zine, database entries, etc.). We will find the appropriate format during the seminar.