The Polish-Romani artist, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas is creating a series of monumental textile banners within a large-format project “Enchanting the world” to be presented at the Polish Pavilion in Venice at the 2022 Art Biennale starting in April.
The project won a competition organized by the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art. Poland’s participation in the 59th International Art Exhibition in Venice is financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The monumental installation in the Polish Pavilion will consist of 12 banners. The project refers to the famous “calendar” series of frescoes in the Renaissance Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, Italy – one of the most mysterious buildings in the history of European architecture. Paintings from over 500 years ago depict images of the Olympic gods, zodiac signs and decans, and scenes from the life of the court in Ferrara at that time.
Each of the 12 fabrics presented in the Pavilion will be divided into three horizontal parts. The top part will show the Roma’s wandering around Europe, in reference to the graphics of the Lorraine engraver Jacques Callot. Created in the 17th century, the drawings are full of anti-Romani stereotypes. Mirga-Tas will disenchant this harmful narrative and create her own large-scale collages showing the rich world of the Roma past and mythology, based on historical works.
The middle part is an archive of Roma history presented from a female perspective. In recent years, Mirga-Tas has created many works devoted to important women in her life, which constitute the Herstories series. The portraits of representatives of the Roma community will be complemented by symbols borrowed from Tarot cards and zodiac signs from Palazzo Schifanoia.
The lower part of the composition consists of 12 paintings depicting contemporary everyday life in the artist’s home village and region Podhale and the multicultural Spisz.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas is currently one of the most famous artists in the Polish art world, gaining more and more recognition in the international arena. In her works, this Polish-Roma artist and activist challenges discriminatory stereotypes and presents an insightful, unbiased image of the Roma community drawing attention to the role played by women in the history of the Roma.
Her works are made of fragments of textiles, according to her style of “throwing material into the picture” – as she calls it. In her large-format collages, Mirga-Tas often uses elements of clothing of the portrayed people: fragments of skirts, scarves or shirts, which become literal carriers of the story.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński