To Ones Name: The name Roma as agency Exhibition, seminar, workshop Curator: Suzana Milevska Assistant Curator: Patrick

Kwaniewski Participants: Saa Barbul, Marika Schmiedt, Alfred Ullrich and others

What does it mean to belong to Roma community and to be called by this name, and what really belongs to Roma and to the mere name of the Roma people in historic, cultural and socio-political terms, are only few of the entangled and reciprocally related issues that are put in the focus of this project. The artists, activists and theorists contributing to the project address the urgency of openly challenging the misunderstandings, stereotypes and controversies surrounding the names used for addressing Roma people, as well as the relevance of the meaning of the term Roma and the reasons for the reluctance towards its use among both non-Roma and some of the Roma communities. The project also ponders the power of naming and its potentiality for empowerment by a seminar and workshop that will discuss various aspects of inclusion of Roma through inscribing Romani names in public space. The project is invested in investigating of the problems with deciding who has the right to determine and decide the position towards the name Roma from which Roma could utter their statements of belonging or non-Roma could act as agents of empowering and solidarity with Roma. The problems as not having agreed on one single official Roma language and other insignia not only are challenged by pushing for some concrete critique of the derogative and pejorative terms as Gypsy, Cigani, Zingar, Tsigane, or Zigeuner that mostly function rather as stigma than as proper ethnic names, often overburdened with anti-Roma sentiments due to the strengthening of racist right-wing politics across Europe (such was the recent case of the official initiative for reversing the established name Roma to Tigan in Romania) 1 but also are proceeded with proposals how to include the presence of Roma in the public space. The arbitrariness behind the term Roma was actually one of the first widely-agreed political decisions and actions in the history of Roma activism.2 This event is directly or indirectly

related and addressed in the art works of the exhibition, in the discussions during the seminar and also as a part of the initiative for naming one street in Vienna after the name of agreed important personality from Roma history and culture. The reference to the lack of presence of Roma names and images of Roma personalities in public places and to defamatory images of Roma and use of derogative names correspond to the visual culture arguments about the profound impact of the proliferation and general distribution of images with problematic content in public spaces (in the works by Marika Schmiedt and Alfred Ullrich) but also is used as a platform for calling for claiming and allocating evident social presence to a larger extent for relevant references to important Roma personalities (in Saa Barbuls work). What better way for doing this but to memorise the past and contribution of Roma to Romani and Austrian culture and history through including their names in a form of public sculptures, street names and other form of presence in public? One of the most obvious questions to be asked here is: Who has control over the naming and renaming or how this power can be used to reproduce and distribute certain dominant cultural and moral principles? The internalization of derogative names as bearers of the regimes of representation, identification, self-essentialization, and self-racialisation create a threatening vicious cycle, from which one most urgently needs to seek a way out. in the view of Deleuze/Guatari, the first moment of giving/receiving a name is in itself the highest point of depersonalization because it is here that we acquire the most intense discernibility in the instantaneous apprehension of the multiplicities belonging to us. 3 Therefore the project puts under pressure the hegemonic regimes of representation present and enduring through arbitrary chosen names as well as by internalized strategies of self- representation that are imposed upon individuals through nominal structures. The curatorial concept of this project attempts to rupture such closed circle of only critiquing the perpetuation of stereotypical representations and the continuation with ambivalent practices of marginalisation of Roma presence in public space. Although some aspects of the project were incited by the urgency to address recent cases of individual and collective displacements, evictions, and deportations of Roma citizens from their homes in many European countries these events are addressed in the art works only indirectly via irony and satire.4 In light of the current neoliberal capitalist advance and its thirst for cheap or even free land, the political manoeuvres are reversed by the proposal to push for a more obvious presence of Roma in the public space. Therefore the presence of Roma names (and not

Gypsy or Zigeuner) in public spaces may serve as a reminder to the unique moment of self-aware decision made by perhaps a limited number of advanced leading Romani activists of the time who actually paved the way to the first political initiative and attempt towards social change and rapture in the long-existing practice of undermining and humiliating Roma in public, or simply against the perpetual ignoring of the presence of Roma and different Romani lives. There is still a great population of individuals (citizens and non-citizens alike) who are made invisible and are silenced by isolation and the violation of their basic human rights. 5 Even if one may not be capable of transcending racism 6 and thus cannot justify the concept of postracial society, or may not be capable of unravelling all inherited contours and inflexions of representation, one should take on board the responsibility to speak up against injustice and discrimination from the past and the presence. The problem how to represent or get away from representation of traumas from the past start again with the nominal structures and, as Eduard Freudmann would argue, it is not by accident that Roma have not yet reached agreement on the Roma term for the Holocaust. 7 The greatest challenge that Roma activists face in the contemporary society full with contradictions in regard inclusion, emigration laws, labor and housing policy affecting Roma is to balance the need to create greater communal political cohesion and to enhance the credibility of those who claim to speak in the Roma name, whilst also attracting support from the wider society, as is mostly in the case of the situation with Spanish Roma, as it will be contested through the research of the Spanish activist Pedro Aguilera Corts. 8 Distinctions between different historic, political and cultural conditions of different Roma communities have to be made, as well as Distinguishing between [historic sic.], official, scientific and everyday racism is helpful, but one must be aware that in reality transcendentally, so to speak all racisms collapse into one. Deleuze finds an appropriate formulation of this essence of racism in the testimony of Auschwitz. 9 Therefore the role of the contemporary Roma artists, researchers and activists in the exhibition and in the other related events is not limited to uttering anti-racist testimonials and highlighting injustice, but the projects strategy also suggests that various new paths and

expressions are needed as a kind of agency that, as once was the role carried by the term Roma, should play the role in inflicting social change both within the artists own communities and in the wider context of the art and political institutions and in the general public space. In the struggle to right the racial bias, social inequalities, and (mis)representations that characterize our world today artists role is seen as both to unravel these mechanisms (often by ironize or over-identify with them) and to counteract them by positive actions. Thus to recognise and point to the urgent need to decipher and unsettle new instances of racism, in all its disguises; and to denounce them loudly but also to use any possibility to call for a radical action that affirms solidarity in difference and cohabitation in communal public space is the aim of this project. Suzana Milevska Marika Schmiedt, Thoughts are free - Anxiety is Reality for Roma in EU-rope, 2013 40-50 Posters, A0 format artistic interventions in the medium of digital collages, montages or confrontages. Marika Schmiedts work is primarily concerned with the history of the persecution of Roma, with a particular emphasis on the relations between "then and now", between the Second World War (that caused the systematic killing of 70-80% of Roma, including the ethnic Roma population in Germany and Austria, as well as her own family) and todays racism and pogroms against Roma throughout Europe. The artist tackles the EU policies of Roma inclusion and by overidentification enhanced by the medium of confrontages she points to the most sensitive issues that are usually supressed and disguised in the contemporary European societies and hypocritical and hegemonic visual regimes of representation. According the artists research little has changed considering the language and use of hate speech and the prevailing silence or indifference of the major public. She is particularly interested in breaking this silence and to counteract the verbal and visual discrimination by exposing the visual culture of racist mechanisms to an extent of a radical satire. By taking into consideration that a recent study has shown that one in five young adults (18 to 30 yearolds) did not know what Auschwitz means, did not know that the name stands for the concentration and extermination camps of the Nazi period, according to the artist there is an acute and urgent need for a thorough and critical discussion of the relevance of names and naming as well as the danger and potentiality of renaming.

Today's racism is especially prevalent in media communication fields visible and accessible on the Internet and in widespread social Internet platforms such as FACEBOOK and TWITTER. Racism within these communication fields is expressed in many forms, relying on various degrees of in/visibility and connotative meanings derived from merged verbal and visual forms. Racist and anti-Semitic symbols and phrases (such as swastikas, flags, expressions like Gypsies to the gas chambers and being gypped, etc.) are widely used to convey opinions and information and are commonly ignored; they remain without consequences. With this project, I seek to explore these different views and expressions, laying bare their symbolic and historical content, especially in conjunction with a pointed comparison to the visual and verbal rhetoric of the Nazi period. Through this confrontation of the alleged "past" racism with the existing -but mostly obscured -racism today, my work seeks to create a space for discussion, dialogue and critical awareness. I believe that my artistic interventions as a woman and Roma may bear long-term effects that -in part -can contribute to the prevention of a dangerous repetition of history in our times (and the future). Marika Schmiedt

Alfred Ullrich, On the Move (2009-2013) Alfred Ullrichs work On the Move (2009-2013) is a spatial installation that creates a certain surreal living room, an environment that only on first sign follows the private space of a Roma home. The installation actually includes different elements and works that the artist created through the long process of research and acting towards demounting the signs LANDFAHRERPLATZ KEIN GEWERBE in the area Grosse Kreisstadt Dachau. The project addresses one of the most pertinent stereotypes about Roma people that always already excludes Roma simply by denying them the choice of sedentary way of life as if nomadism is predestined and assigned to Roma by some archaic order (which even historically is not necessarily correct for all regions and for all ethnic communities). The vicious circle of the assumption of nomadic determination and preference have caused many misunderstandings and restrictions in the past and remain at present. For example, Ullrichs installation includes the correspondence between the Chairwoman of the Knstlerverinigung Dachau and the Mayor of the GROSSE KREISSTADT DACHAU about the signs LANDFAHRERPLATZ KEIN GEWERBE and the video installation "Crazy Water Wheel". Crazy Water Wheel consists of two videos. The first one is showing only a

loop of a turning wheel of a watermill that lies in vicinity of the Nazi extermination camp of Dachau so the wheel also refers to the eternal recurrence of racism. Side by side with the
watermill wheel there is a documentary showing an informal private performance of the artist commenting on the traffic signs Landfahrerplatz kein Gewerbe warning that itinerants are not allowed to trade or peddle in the area. Such signs are still in use in Bavaria but in the work the inscription is

crossed out. This simple action high- lights how seemingly neutral regulations in fact enforce the segregation of Roma travellers from others. The artist is recorded how he questions and crosses
out the inscription on the street sign with holding three signs one after another: a question mark, a cross and a sign suggesting a new term: simply saying Rastplatz instead of the old one thus pointing to the relevance of each term and name that, as the wheel itself perpetuates the same old stereotypes.

Thus discrimination on the basis of ethnicity is preserved through language and visual public memory, something that gives way to reinforcing the already existing stereotype of Roma people as exotic creatures that are always on the move that might be true but this work points to the fact that this has not always been their own choice of way of life. Saa Barbul, Roma Boulevard, 2013, video installation Saa Barbuls video installation presents the video documentary that is the result of the artists research about the case of the monument dedicated to the late Romani singer aban Bajramovi. Bajramovi who was one of the most famous Roma personalities in Serbia was honored by the citizens of his home-town Ni (Serbia) with erecting a unique monument dedicated to him after his untimely death. He was one of the rare celebrities in ex-Yugoslavia who was highly appreciated and famous for his music regardless to his Roma origin. At the same time the film speaks of shame, discrimination and intolerance towards the singer when the initiative to name a boulevard after him followed the enthusiasm surrounding the raising of the statue. Deleuze pointed out to one link between racism and shame in Primo Levis account of his Auschwitzs experience, what he called grey area. 10 In the documentary different activists and researchers discuss the background of the hate speech and stigmatization of Roma that is present in the sound of old names for Roma. The artist also conducted a research on the sentiments prevailing among Vienna citizens towards a possibility or raising a similar statue or naming a street after a famous Austrian Roma that will be also presented as a video recording of the poll.

NOTES
1

Romania's government has caused outrage among Romany or Gypsy communities

and organizations after it asked Parliament in Bucharest to accept a proposal to change the official name of the Romany from Roma, which means "man" in the Romany language, to Tigan, which comes from the Greek term for "untouchable." See: Rupert Wolfe Murray, Romania's Government Moves to Rename the Roma, Time, Bucharest Wednesday, Dec. 08, 2010, Last accessed 30 April 2013, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2035862,00.html The term Roma (or according to some linguist more appropriate transliteration of the

sound of Romani language Rroma) was widely accepted after 1971, when during the first truly transnational Roma congress, which took place in Orpington (near London), the present Roma activists agreed on the term in order to circumvent the derogatory connotation of the labels Gypsy, Zittan or Tzigani. Today it serves as an umbrella term for many different names that various Roma communities use for self-designation due to the lack of common language and other authentic common term. The fact is that the term Roma is not accepted by all of them because of different cultural background and legacy that differ from one country to another (e.g. the Spanish culture is often understood as a more tolerant and integrative towards Roma), it simply means man in all Romani dialects and is particularly problematic from the feminist critiques perspective.
3

Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, tr. Brian Massumi, University of

Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1996, p. 40.

4

The controversial expulsions from France of nearly 1000 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria

provoked significant international criticism and were seen by many as a severe breach of international human rights laws on discrimination. See Kim Willsher, Orders to police on Roma expulsions from France leaked, guardian.co.uk, 13 September 2010, online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/13/sarkozy-roma-expulsion-human-rights.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Making Visible, 28th of May 2011, symposium curated by

Birgit Lurz and Wolfgang Schlag at the Architektur Zentrum Wien, related to the exhibition

"Roma Protokoll", curated by Suzana Milevska. Last accessed: 30 April 2013, http://igkultur.at/projekte/romanistan/making-visible
6

Arun Saldanha, Reontologising race: the machinic geography of phenotype, Environment

and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 24, no. 1 (2006), pp. 9 24.
7

There is certain disagreement about the use of the Romani term Porajmos (Romani:

/po.aj.mos/ (also Porrajmos or Pharrajimos) for the Roma Holocaust during the Third Reich, because it means devouring or destruction. However, for example when in 2003 the Alliance Taskforce awarded the Sinti Roma Hugo Hllenreiner with the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award the term Pharrajimos survivor was used without any mention of this disagreement.
8

Andres Cala, Spain's Tolerance of Gypsies: A Model for Europe? Time, Madrid

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010, last accessed 30 April 2013, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2019316,00.html Suzana Milevska and Arun Saldanha, The Eternal Return of Race: Reflections on East European Racism Deleuze and Race. Edited by Arun Saldanha and Jason Michael Adams, Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2013, 240.
9

I was very struck by all the passages in Primo Levi where he explains that Nazi camps have given us a shame at being human. Not, he says, that were all responsible for Nazism, as some would have us believe, but that weve all been tainted by it: even the survivors of the camps had to make compromises with it, if only to survive. Theres the shame of there being men who became Nazis; the shame of being unable, not seeing how, to stop it; the shame of having compromised with it; theres the whole of what Primo Levi calls this grey area. See: Gilles Deleuze, (1995), Control and Becoming, Negotiations 1972-1990, trans. Martin Joughin, New York: Columbia University Press, 1995, 172, qtd. also in Milevska/Saldanha 240.
10