Roma: Self-Representation and Popular Media

From eye.on.art

Autograph ABP, in collaboration with Amnesty International, presents ‘Roma: self-representation and the popular media’, a symposium bringing together activists, academics, journalists and artists.

This event will address the history and current state of discrimination against Roma people throughout the European Union, the campaigns for their rights, and the question of their representation in society, media and culture. The presentations and discussions will draw on direct experience, field and academic research, recent court cases and testimonies.

Programmed over three consecutive evenings, the symposium is arranged around three themes: Campaigners (12 June), Roma Voices (13 June), Creative Responses (14 June).

Speakers include Elisabeth Blanchet, photographer; Dr Ethel Brooks, 2011-2012 Fulbright Visiting Distinguished Chair, University of the Arts London; Damian James Le Bas, writer and editor of the Travellers Times; Toma Nikolaev Maldenov, independent journalist and activist; Roz Mortimer, artist and filmmaker; Gary Thomas, director of Animate Projects; and campaigners from Amnesty International.

The discussions will be chaired by Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph ABP, with curators Gabi Scardi and Christine Eyene. Each panel will be open to debate and discussion with the audience.

This symposium forms part of the exhibition Roma-Sinti-Kale-Manush presented at Rivington Place until 28 July 2012 and is organised in association with Amnesty International UK.


PROGRAMME

I. CAMPAIGNERS
Tuesday 12 June 2012
6.30-8.30 pm
Chaired by Mark Sealy

This panel will look at the current status of Roma citizens in Europe and the campaigns for Roma causes.

Speakers

Keynote speech by Dr Ethel Brooks, 2011-2012 Fulbright Visiting Distinguished Chair, University of the Arts, London.

Presentation of Amnesty International’s campaigns for Roma rights.


II. ROMA VOICES
Wednesday 13 June 2012
6.30-8.30 pm
Chaired by Mark Sealy

Mainstream media usually depict Roma communities in a populist and caricatural manner. In this session Roma personalities respond to media-related current topics.

Speakers

Elisabeth Blanchet, photographer, talks about the use of her images for the Big Fat Gypsy Weddings television programme with a discriminatory slogan that has perverted the intention of her work and compromised her ten year relationship with Gypsies and Roma.

Tracie Giles, English Romani Gypsy activist, expresses her views on the caricatural and controversial nature of the programme Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

Damian James Le Bas, writer, poet and editor of Travellers’ Times, discusses questions of self-representation and the importance of Roma voices in the media.

Toma Nikolaev Maldenov, independent journalist, speaks about the ethnic discrimination and political oppression of Roma in Bulgaria, as well as his plea for political asylum in the UK.


III. CREATIVE RESPONSES
Thursday 14 June 2012
6.30 – 8.30 pm
Chaired by Christine Eyene

This session presents examples of engaged creative responses from visual artists and filmmakers to the continued abuse of human rights with regard to the Roma.

Speakers

Gabi Scardi, co-curator of Roma-Sinti-Kale-Manush at Rivington Place, introduces her longstanding interest in socio-political issues in the arts and her various exhibition projects on the theme of the Roma.

Gary Thomas, director of Animate Projects, presents Sites of Collective Memory, a project exploring how we ‘remember’ collective experience, and conversely, how things can become forgotten. Artists commissioned include Romani artist Delaine Le Bas and Damian James Le Bas.

Roz Mortimer, artist and filmmaker, working with Roma communities for Sites of Collective Memory, discusses her work-in-progress.


Roma: Self-Representation and the Popular Media

Amnesty International
Human Rights Action Centre
17-25 New Inn Yard
London EC2A 3EA

Free entrance