A video interview with Marion Colard on co-creating art with Cluj’s Roma* communities.
In last year’s Transeuropa Festival edition of the EA journal we covered Série «PATA», an exhibition which artist Marion Colard co-created with Roma* communities in Cluj, and presented at the Transeuropa Festival. In this video interview, Marion talks us through the processes and meanings behind the artwork.
Through co-creation workshops, Marion Colard tries to sublimate the stories of people designated as “on the margins of society”. She seeks to bring out the beauty and strength of those who are forced to build themselves apart. The systemic discrimination, called “antiziganism” faced by Roma communities* is so tenacious that it seems to prevent any other form of narrative. Even if you have never met one before, if you hear “Roma child living in a slum”, an image comes to your mind. Colard’s wish is to tell another story and create, with the people concerned, other images.
Behind every word, every stereotype, is a person with their own story, dreams and complex questions that form and grow beyond the living conditions imposed by systemic discrimination. During the workshops, different techniques were proposed such as monotype, painting, writing or photography. They expressed what was important for them in their environment, what they liked and didn’t like in their neighbourhood. With photography and colour paint we reinterpreted the art of portrait, embracing self-representation.
“Behind every word, every stereotype, is a person with their own story, dreams and complex questions”
Marion Colard is a self-taught visual artist, and has been working with Roma communities for eight years.
*The term “Roma” is used in this article as a generic term and does not cover the diversity of communities on the field.
Scan the QR code to watch the video interview:
