REFLECTION ABOUT A MUSEUM
(A project created for the exhibition Nadikhuno Muzeumos/Invisible Museum, Tranzit.sk)
At the start of the project there was the idea to create a museum that would represent Roma to others, a museum that would help strengthening self-confidence of Roma community, and a museum that would also enrich Slovak culture with works of a minority that has belonged to our country for centuries. The basic idea has been to replace the extremely narrow view of the Roma that we know from media or even statements of politicians, with the presentation of the best of Roma culture and of their life and to achieve this by joining forces of the Roma and non Roma people, representing in this way them and Slovakia to others.
However this project for tranzit.sk is not an attempt to create such a museum. One cannot in a short time do the work of historians, ethnographers, sociologists and cultural mediators just as it is impossible to capture the nature of Roma lives in their entirety without also knowing their history. The exhibition therefore has a form of an unfinished project, a curious combination of reflections, collected texts, photographs, and pictorial material. I hope that this collage will allow the viewer to imagine the form of such museum, the range of its functions and its meaning for our country. It is a work in the process and everyone can imagine its final form.
In addition to the complexity of text and images, this project is also a testimony of failure or misunderstanding. Each of us, in relation to minorities, has his or her own ideas - whether idealized and simplified, or stereotyped and critical. The central object of the display originally had to stand on wheels. But the wagons on the wheels, as a symbol of the nomadic past are far away from today's Roma. The last Roma stopped moving from place to place in Slovakia in the 1950s and many have lived in one place for centuries. These recent relocations – either to the poor regions of Slovakia for cheap housing or work in big cities and abroad, are the result of the economic necessity (In later shows of this project the wheels were not part of the display anymore).
The textile pattern printed on the walls of the museum is the result of a creative workshop with young people from Rankovce and Kecerovce. The aim was to create the original Roma textile pattern. The work was initiated by the Community Centre – Združenie pre lepší život (Association for Better Life), which, among other things, has renewed almost forgotten crafts such as colourful Roma embroidery. The pattern that young people have created can be used for their textile products.
Inside the exhibition object there is a space for a small cinema and a stage. The videos screened inside represent a collection of interviews with Roma personalities and documentaries of Roma events in Slovakia and Bohemia.
Examining Roma customs, culture, and history is sometimes like looking into the mirror. Uncovering our own prejudices. Compensating the fault of our ancestors. And seeing life of the majority as just one of the possible models of life. At the end of this process we can stand – both Roma and non-Roma next to each other as equal. And that's the beginning of the dialogue.
The project is a collection of photographs and texts from a number of sources, where most of the material came from the Museum of Romani Culture in Brno, the Museum of Romani Culture in Martin, from the books Jedeme dlouhou cestou (We Travel the Long Way), Čas Romú (Time of Roma), Papuša, Rómovia.sme.sk and Romea.cz, as well as from information published by the The Office of the Slovak Government Commissioner for Roma Communities, publications of the Association In Minorita and many others.
I wish to express gratitude here for help and accepting interviews to all people of Tranzit.sk who made this project happen: Judit Angel, Eliška Mazalanová, Petra Balíková. Also those who helped with the research: Jarmila Vaňová, Július Pecho, Erika Godla and Román Čonka, Jana Horváthová, Adriana Daneková, Dela Negra, Eva Danišová, Andrej Belák and many others.
