Roma Media Archive is an ongoing participatory media project to which the Roma and non-Roma artists, activist organisations and communities are invited to contribute various documentary and art materials that reflect the contemporary Roma situation today. The contributions vary from photography series, video documentaries, art performances, research projects and other digital materials that reflect on certain urgent issues related to specific events or to the general situation in regard various Roma communities in Europe or in other parts of the world.
This project was originally initiated by Suzana Milevska, a theorist and curator, who is based in Skopje, Macedonia. She has invited a worldwide range of participating artists, to share their archives, as testimonials of their research endeavours, in solidarity with the Roma people.
The main aim of this project was to create the first transnational Roma media archive in which different artists and activists collect the results of their activities as witnesses of certain aspects of the life in different Roma communities and act in solidarity with the members of these communities. The varied and multi-disciplinary approach of these works shows everyday life and urgent issues that Roma communities and individuals are facing in contemporary society. Several recurrent themed turned to be in common for different Roma communities such as antiromaism, housing, poverty, residency and citizenship, Holocaust, early marriages, regeneration of Roma neighbourhoods etc.
The project will be launched during the exhibition Call the Witness – Roma Pavilion to take place as a collateral event during the Venice Biennale 2011.
This web platform will continue as an open collaborative and participatory project for the accumulation of Roma and non-Roma artists work. Outreach programs are envisaged to bring various works back to the Roma communities where they were first produced.