Disrupting the Institution through Language and Enactment: Omara’s Resistance
By Veronika Molnar
January 20, 2023
In this essay, Veronika Molnar writes about the Hungarian Roma artist Omara (1945- 2020) whose diverse practice challenged the status quo of Hungary’s contemporary art scene. The essay also highlights the importance of the RomaMoMA project, which offers a transnational approach to presenting and contextualizing the works of Roma artists inside and outside the framework of established art organizations.
I paint the story of my life and my opinion about the world
If you frown: do it after me . . .
But your eye be removed as well—and you be a gypsy . . .
Be deeply humiliated everywhere you go from childhood to this day
Otherwise, I’m not interested in your opinion . . .
—Omara, “If you have taken the time to see Omara’s scribbles,” 2011
It took a simple gesture for Omara (Oláh Mara, 1945–2020) to transcend the category of “naive gypsy painter,” as she liked to call herself, and become an internationally recognized contemporary artist: handing over her glass eye to Hungarian American businessman and philanthropist George Soros at the opening of the First Roma Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial in 2007. Or at least, that is the moment that curator and art historian Tímea Junghaus has deemed pivotal in reframing Omara’s artistic practice, in which “actions, media presence, and performances” became an integral part. During her lifetime, Omara relentlessly worked on carving out space for herself and other Roma artists in contemporary art institutions, which have historically refused to represent the voices of the Roma, even though the Roma are the biggest ethnic minority in Europe. Omara fought for artistic agency through painting, public appearances, and actions both inside and outside of art institutions— from exhibiting her work in a Hungarian prison to creating the first Roma gallery in 1993 in her apartment. Her works were recently presented at Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany, by RomaMoMA—a transnational, collaborative project of OFFBiennále Budapest and the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC). ( … )