European Roma Rights Centre 2025
The RoMagic exhibition brings much needed visibility to the discrimination faced by Romani LGBTIQ+ people – both from society and also within their Romani communities – as well as showing a resilient culture of activism and pride in the face of widespread prejudice. Romani people are the largest ethnic minority in Europe, as well as being one of the most persecuted. Throughout Europe, many Romani women, men, and children are faced with severe human rights abuses including segregated education, police brutality, forced evictions, and complete marginalisation in ghettoes and segregated villages without access to basic services such as water and electricity. Amidst this modern-day apartheid, Romani LGBTIQ+ people face additional discrimination and hardships on account of their ethnicity and...
The RoMagic exhibition brings much needed visibility to the discrimination faced by Romani LGBTIQ+ people – both from society and also within their Romani communities – as well as showing a resilient culture of activism and pride in the face of widespread prejudice. Romani people are the largest ethnic minority in Europe, as well as being one of the most persecuted. Throughout Europe, many Romani women, men, and children are faced with severe human rights abuses including segregated education, police brutality, forced evictions, and complete marginalisation in ghettoes and segregated villages without access to basic services such as water and electricity. Amidst this modern-day apartheid, Romani LGBTIQ+ people face additional discrimination and hardships on account of their ethnicity and their sexual or gender identity and expression. The creation of this radical art space came out of an activist group of LGBTIQ+ Romani individuals cooperating with a mixed team of Roma, non-Roma, queers and straights, from the European Roma Rights Centre. Beyond a celebration of diversity, the project is a disruptive intervention to break the silence about the very existence of LGBTIQ+ Roma. It highlights and challenges the multiple and intersecting forms of oppression and injustice that LGBTIQ+ Roma face. Many live in segregated and deprived neighbourhoods, devoid of support networks and social services. Such conditions take a toll on an individual’s physical and mental health and life chances, characterised by high morbidity, poor education and a lack of qualifications, loss of confidence and self-esteem, and no personal space or ‘closet’ for LGBTIQ+ Roma to hide in or come out of. In addition to more general homophobia and transphobia, and the intimidation that comes with it, many Roma face forced and arranged heterosexually normative marriages to ‘cure’ them and prevent them from living their lives as LGBTIQ+ persons. Coming out often means being cast out or expelled from one’s community, and sex work is frequently the only form of labour that remains available. This exhibition contains a series of vignettes of brave individuals who tell their stories without filter or artifice. Through a combination of intimate documentary photography and emotionally raw audio interviews, this exhibition challenges existing prejudices within Romani communities, the LGBTIQ+ community, and wider society by rendering the life experience and personal narratives of Romani LGBTIQ+ individuals visible to diverse audiences across Europe. More than merely documenting oppression, these are testimonies of resilience and affirmative celebrations of LGBTIQ+ Romani identities. These testimonies contribute to the wider endeavour of ensuring LGBTIQ+ Romani history does not go unrecorded, their oppression unchallenged, and to insist that the LGBTIQ+ Romani contribution to the human rights, arts and culture in Europe is fully acknowledged. While Roma have so often been relegated to the footnotes of European history, LGBTIQ+ Roma have been even more marginalised, completely elided from histories and accounts of the Romani past and present. This exhibition aims to remedy these historical omissions and proffer a celebration and affirmation of lives lived with pride. The exhibition will also be held in Belgrade and Bucharest in 2025. The exhibition uses QR codes linked to the audio interviews recorded for each person photographed. You will need a smartphone (and optionally headphones) to listen to the audio element of the exhibition.Opening Hours
| Monday | 11:00 - 20:00 |
| Tuesday | 11:00 - 20:00 |
| Wednesday | 11:00 - 20:00 |
| Thursday | 11:00 - 20:00 |
| Friday | 11:00 - 20:00 |
| Saturday | 11:00 - 20:00 |
| Sunday | 11:00 - 20:00 |