Meet Your Neighbours

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Foreword by Tímea Junghaus Roma art does exist. The Roma are not a homogenous group. Assimilation, emancipation, migration, miscegenation, education and socia! status have diversified the population to an extent that today the Roma population is as diverse as the generál European non-Roma population. Yet with all the diversity, a common cultural framework and a social history sustain the classification. Thus a book entitled Roma Contemporary Art from Europe must confront the challenge of defining what Roma Art is. Romani communities are dispersed far and wide across Europe, creating discontinuous diasporas. Today, the Romani population in Europe is variously estimated at between eight and twelve millión people.1 Precise demographic data are not available, due in large part to "the reluctance of many Roma to identify themselves as such for official purposes, and the refusal of many governments to include Roma as a legitimate category for census purposes."2 The May 2004 enlargement of... Tovább

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Foreword by Tímea Junghaus Roma art does exist. The Roma are not a homogenous group. Assimilation, emancipation, migration, miscegenation, education and socia! status have diversified the population to an extent that today the Roma population is as diverse as the generál European non-Roma population. Yet with all the diversity, a common cultural framework and a social history sustain the classification. Thus a book entitled Roma Contemporary Art from Europe must confront the challenge of defining what Roma Art is. Romani communities are dispersed far and wide across Europe, creating discontinuous diasporas. Today, the Romani population in Europe is variously estimated at between eight and twelve millión people.1 Precise demographic data are not available, due in large part to "the reluctance of many Roma to identify themselves as such for official purposes, and the refusal of many governments to include Roma as a legitimate category for census purposes."2 The May 2004 enlargement of the European Union meant that approximately 1.5 millión Roma became EU citizens. The forthcoming accession of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 will mean an additional 3 millión EU citizens of Romani origin. The Roma speak different dialects of Romani, as well as a variety of languages from their "host" countries. They share a number of religious and church affiliations, whilst maintaining at the same time cultural boundaries not only between themselves and the surrounding environment, but alsó between different Romani groups. As the distinguished Romanologist Thomas Acton points out: "Multiculturality might be an appropriate concept to describe the basic reality of Gypsy people."3 Such understandings of Romani identity alsó correspond to Stuart Hall's concept of cultural identity as a "matter of 'becoming'"4 or to Horni Bhabha's "restless, uneasy, interstitial hybridity: a radical heterogeneity, discontinuity, the permanent revolution of forms."5 However, it is difficult to interpret these in a global context where it is amongst numerous ethnic and racial groups that diverse Romani communities strive for unity and specificity, struggle to identify and establish themselves. Cultural representations play an important role in the construction of the Roma identity. For centuries, Roma people have been the victims of representations created exclusively by the non-Roma. As a new generation of Roma intellectuals is emerging, we are witnessing the birth of Roma consciousness,6 a state when successful, wealthy and well-educated Roma proudly acknowledge their origin, rather than opt for Vissza