Call the Witness
Live Testimonies
1, 2, and 3 June 2011: 13.00–19.00 hrs

Organised by: BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.

Call the Witness is a project of the Roma Pavilion, which takes place as a Collateral Event in the framework of the 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2011.

A makeshift exhibition evolving over the course of the Venice Biennale preview days through the flux of live “testimonies”— works of art, performances, talks, and conversations by and with artists, thinkers, and politicians—Call the Witness considers the situation of the Roma and Roma art as emblematic of a world filled with inequality and oppression today, and in solidarity with the largest minority in Europe speculates about another, hopeful future. Read More

PROGRAM

1 June 2011
Wednesday

13.00 hrs
DANIEL BAKER, artist, United Kingdom & PAUL RYAN, artist, United Kingdom: Mirror Mirror (lecture-performance)

14.15 hrs
TOM MCDONOUGH, art historian, United States: Campo nomadi: Constant’s Design for a Gypsy Camp (lecture)

15.30 hrs
MAUD DE BOER-BUQUICCHIO, Deputy Secretary General, Council of Europe, France: Roma Advocacy Quilt (presentation)

16.15 hrs
CRISTINELA IONESCU, journalist and producer, Tumende TV Production, Romania: Romani Kris: Court of Common Consent (lecture-presentation)

17.30 hrs
SALMAN RUSHDIE, author, United Kingdom/United States (talk)

2 June 2011
Thursday

13.00 hrs
ROSEANNA MCPHEE, educator and activist, United Kingdom: No Justice – Tinker, Help Thyself (lecture-performance)

14.15 hrs
SHAMUS MCPHEE, artist, United Kingdom: Out in the Open (conversation with Daniel Baker)

15.30 hrs
THOMAS ACTON, Emeritus Professor of Romani Studies, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom: The New Romani Art (lecture)

16.45 hrs
TANJA OSTOJIĆ , artist, Serbia/Germany: Naked Life 2, 2011, performance, 24 min.

(Followed by informal drinks.)

00.00 hrs
BORIS ONDREIČKA, artist, Slovakia: BLACK BIRDS & BLACKBIRDS, 2011, reading-performance, approx. 30 min.

3 June 2011
Friday

13.00 hrs
CHRISTIANO BERTI (Italy), NIGEL DICKINSON (United Kingdom), TINA CARR (United Kingdom/Wales), and ANNEMARIE SCHOENE (United Kingdom/Wales) (participating artists): Web Launch of the Roma Media Archive(www.romamediaarchive.net) (talk-screening)

14.00 hrs
ROBERT KUSHEN, Roma rights activist, United States: Sticks and Stones and Words that Hurt: Roma Rights in Quotation (lecture-bricolage)

15.15 hrs
ŽELIMIR ŽILNIK, film director, Serbia: Kenedi Trilogy (lecture-presentation)

16.30 hrs
STALKER/ON, art and architecture collective, Italy: New Destination: The Moon!(presentation)

18.00 hrs
Opening with contributions by GEORGE SOROS (financier and philanthropist, address via podcast), JAN TRUSZCZYNSKI (Director-General for Education and Culture, European Commission), ROBERT PALMER (Director for Culture and Cultural and Natural Heritage, Council of Europe), WOLFGANG PETRISCH (Chair of the European Cultural Foundation (ECF)), and others, as well as a panel discussion organized by Decade Trust Fund