Good Conversation Centre | Identity Narratives

Conversation between Taras Gembik (Foundation Towards Dialogue) and Krzysztof Gil

Art has always had a significant impact on the perception of the Roma community. For centuries, the image of Roma and Roma people was determined by people outside the community, who created works that stigmatised and reproduced stereotypes. Today, Roma artists are taking over the narrative. Art has become a tool for them to build their own narratives about themselves.

Stereotypical and unreflective representations of Roma are full of colourful folklore, glamour or extreme poverty. These are clichés that simplify the reality – Krzysztof Gil said in an interview.

What is the Roma community really like today, and how much has the image of Roma and Roma people in art changed since Roma artists took control of the narrative construction? These and other questions will be answered by Krzysztof Gil – an artist whose artistic practice explores historical themes related to the history of the Roma community, exclusion and forgetting, and whose work has been exhibited in galleries in Warsaw, Berlin and London.

The meeting accompanies the painting exhibition “Krzysztof Gil: A black night in the daylight”, the opening of which will take place on 11th October 2024 at 19.00 in the Pracownia Portretu (st. Księży Młyn 7 lokal 1U).

Bio

Krzysztof Gil (b. 1987, Kraków) – visual artist, in his practice uses drawing, painting, sculpture and graphic art. He graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where he obtained his master’s degree under the supervision of prof. dr hab. ASP Piotr Panasiewicz. He defended his doctorate in art in 2018 at his parent university. He is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts at the Pedagogical University of Kraków. In 2016, he was awarded the Creative Scholarship of the City of Kraków. He has presented his works in institutions and galleries such as: European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture – ERIAC in Berlin, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Gdańsk City Gallery, Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, Stefan Gierowski Foundation in Warsaw, BWA Wrocław, BWA Tarnów, Szara Kamienica Gallery in Kraków, Museum of Contemporary Art in Wrocław, l’étrangère in London, Akademie der Kunst in Berlin.

Taras Gembik – performer and cultural worker coming from Volhynia in Ukraine (born in 1996 in Kamień Koszyrski). He is Ukrainian and Polish. He collaborates with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. He guides exhibitions, translating art into the language of personal empathy and beauty, in which borders disappear. Together with Maria Beburia, he co-creates the collective “BLYZKIST” (Bliskość), which focuses on building a multi-level community of people with migration experience. He is associated with the Foundation Towards Dialogue – a partner of the Łódź of Many Cultures Festival – where he is creating a Roma Community Centre.