Romani Click

About

There are approximately 20,000 Romani people living in Poland. They speak a distinct language and their culture is poorly known to Polish people who believe in many stereotypes about their way of life. There is a lot of tension between Polish and Romani communities on the local level and it is hard to find space for communication between those communities almost everywhere in Poland. In Carpatian mountains most Romani people live in small communities and they are very distrustful in first contact. They are usually scared of racism, claiming that they feel it everywhere. They don't believe in themselves. There is a need of untypical actions addressed to Romani community to give them a chance to come into being in mainstream social life. Marta Kotlarska, an artist based in London and Malgorzata Mirga, an artist living and working in Romani settlement in Czarna Gora (polish Carpatian mountains) worked together this summer with young residents of one of the poorest, most closed and traditional Romani settlements in Poland - Zawisza Czarny - Nowy Sacz settlement in Malopolska region. The project, dedicated to 24 children and teenagers from Romani background, was financially supported by Batory/Ford foundation. It was conceived to empower their sense of values and give them possibility to spend leisure time in a positive way. They prepared self constructed photo cameras from paper boxes (so-called cameras obscura) and took photo illustrations of three fairytales written by Jan Mirga - Romani poet and storyteller from Czarna Gora. The final part of the workshop consisted of a street happening which touched upon an important issue concerning the problem of the attempts how to get out of the traditionally closed Romani world without losing Romani identity. In Stary Sacz's old market - place where a lot of Romani people beg, young Romani invited passers-by to common photography. Nowy Sacz's Romani Click was the second edition of the project . Artists plan to take actions in next Romani settlements in Poland. The artists say: the attendance were two times higher than expected. Young Romani were very enthusiastic about the project. It shows clearly that learning through playing perfectly suits educational needs of young Romani people, who are quite often outside of official education."