The Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY) is honored to present What Should I be Afraid of? Roma Artist Ceija Stojka, an exhibition curated by Dr. Lorely French, Carina Kurta and Dr. Stephanie Buhmann in collaboration with the Ceija Stojka International Association.
Comprised of ninety paintings and drawings culled from collections in Europe and the United States, the installation celebrates the extraordinary art and life of Romni artist, writer, activist, and educator Ceija Stojka, survivor of Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. A monograph will be published on the occasion of this exhibition.
Born to a traveling horse trading family of the Lovara Romani group in Austria in 1933, Stojka first began to write down her recollections in the mid-1980s when she was fifty-six years old. Her memoir Wir leben im Verborgenen: Aufzeichnungen einer Romni zwischen den Welten (We Live in Secrecy: Notes of a Romani Woman between Worlds), which was released in 1988, distinguished her as a leading advocate for remembering the Porajmos (Devouring), the Romani Holocaust. The exhibition title, What Should I be Afraid of?, cites one of Stojka’s poems, in which she describes how her personal experience of the Porajmos resulted in her fearless and passionate embrace of life going forward. [1]
In the 1980s, Stojka also began to paint her so-called memory pictures, ultimately creating a body of over 1000 works of art. What Should I be Afraid of? Roma Artist Ceija Stojka features a selection of the artist’s extensive collection of paintings and drawings, whose themes range from idyllic pre-war family scenes to the horrors witnessed and suffered under the Nazi regime. For example, whereas the vast fields of flowers she viewed as a child while traveling in the horse-drawn wooden wagons with her family through Austria entice viewers into their colorful glory, the grim black-and-white drawings of the horrendous daily life she faced as a young girl in the camps leave behind lingering haunting images. It is through this faceted view of Roma life and the fate that hundreds of thousands of Roma suffered in Europe during the first half of the 20th century that Stojka’s oeuvre manifests itself as a most powerful warning against hate and intolerance of all kinds and a plea for remembrance.
While opening on Ceija Stojka’s exact birthday, the exhibition at the ACFNY celebrates four anniversaries. 2023 marks the 90th year of Stojka’s birth and the 10th year of her passing. It further celebrates the 30th Anniversary since Roma were recognized as an official ethnic group in Austria (1993) after years of activism during which Ceija Stojka stood together with other Austrian Roma to become part of the social majority. 2023 also commemorates 50 Years of Austria’s International Cultural Diplomacy (Austria Kultur International, 1973).
Running through mid-September 2023, What Should I be Afraid of? Roma Artist Ceija Stojka is accompanied by a diverse program of readings from Ceija Stojka’s poetry and memoirs, musical performances by Roma, and film screenings.
24 mai - 25 septembre 2023
