From 2 December 2022 to 5 March 2023, the exhibition ‘Traveling Images’ by Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, currently the most important representative of Roma contemporary art, will be held at the Gallery of the International Cultural Centre (ICC) in Krakow.

The ICC Gallery will present a wide selection of the artist’s works from 2019-2022, including the internationally acclaimed series ‘Exit from Egypt’ and a series of large-format textiles titled ‘Herstorie’. It will also present new works that focus on the history of Nowa Huta’s Roma and Roma memory.

The first part of the exhibition, titled ‘Atlas’, features works by various, less and more well-known authors, from different collections, made in a variety of techniques, which illustrate the stereotypical perception of the Roma.

In the following rooms, visitors will be able to see works by Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, which are an attempt to disenchant imposed images, as well as a form of personal and collective self-presentation. They are divided into five groups ‘Newo Rom – newo drom’ (New man/new Rom – new way), ‘O fotografis’ (Photographer), ‘Siukar Manusia’ (Good/great people), Giantesses’ and ‘Exit from Egypt’. The artist addresses the complex Roma and Polish identity, the decolonisation of Roma material cultural heritage and the Holocaust of the Roma.

According to the exhibition information, an important source of inspiration for Małgorzata Mirga-Tas are Roma women, who are often made the protagonists of her works. They are members of her family, her closest female co-workers, artist friends and activists – people of merit to the Roma community. This original minority feminism aims to deconstruct the stereotypical image of Roma women, perpetuated for centuries in visual culture.

Adrian Andrzejewski