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Paper short abstract:

The use of the racialized figure of “g*psy” in regional and diasporic art spaces excludes Romani artists from artistic discourse and art history. I interrogate how the formulation of “the artist as a g*psy” reproduces racialized tropes of poverty that uphold and justify anti-Roma racism.

Paper long abstract:

The aim of my paper is to unveil a particular kind of antigypsyism circulating in spaces of art in regions that were formerly part of Yugoslavia, by artists from that region, often in diaspora. I argue that there is a persistent use of the racialized figure of “the g*psy” by gadjo (non-Roma) artists both in the Balkans and in diaspora, while Romani artists from the region are excluded from the regional artistic discourse and art history. I analyze examples of two prominent gadje, non-Roma, artists who use the performative figure of “the g*psy” to produce the identity of the post-Yugoslav artist. I also discuss the critical work of Selma Selman, a performance and visual artist from the region and also Roma herself. In the paper I Interrogate how the formulation of “the artist as a g*psy” reproduces racialized tropes of poverty and helplessness that uphold and justify anti-Roma racism and negate the existence of Roma in Yugoslavia, Roma art, and Roma migration. I use scholarly work from representation, processes of othering, postcolonial and decolonial studies, as well as feminist work and black studies, to theorize critical art making today. Contemporary Romani artists and culture workers have over the last decades built a thick network of exhibitions, festivals, museums, archives, educational and platforms for networking and facilitation of the label Roma art—at the forefront of contemporary decolonial practices of art making and artistic production.