Eugen Raportoru: The Abduction from the Seraglio / Roma Women: Performative Strategies of Resistance

Title: Eugen Raportoru: The Abduction from the Seraglio / Roma Women: Performative Strategies of Resistance
Commissioner: The European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC)
Curator: Ilina Schileru
Artists: Ethel Brooks, Ioanida Costache, Mihaela Drăgan, Delia Grigore, Angéla Kóczé, Dijana Pavlović, Erasma Vicenzina Pevarello, Alina Şerban

European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture presents an Official Collateral Event of the 59th Venice Biennale consisting of two exhibitions: “Eugen Raportoru: The Abduction from the Seraglio” and “Roma Women: Performative Strategies of Resistance“.

“Eugen Raportoru: The Abduction from the Seraglio” features Raportoru‘s recent experiments in installation, which narrate past memories from his childhood and often contain self-referential elements through which he creates a hidden genealogy of the unspoken truths of domestic environments. The exhibition comprises a series of site-specific installations composed of numerous household objects inherent to Roman domestic spaces, while a selection of paintings retraces the fraught trajectory of oriental carpets in Eastern European households. The series is grounded in an understanding of the significance of – and bearing witness to – the narratives that such objects embody, as well as their capacity to inform and reflect on Roman culture.

“Getaway“, a public installation by artist Daniel Baker, placed outside the venue of Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, provides further context with a symbolic object reflecting on mobility and encampment, highlighting the role of décor and the construction of identities.

In “Roma Women: Performative Strategies of Resistance“, a group of Roman women, artists and intellectuals reflect, question and offer alternative perspectives on European history (of art).