Unikum 08 October nett

AK TUELT
International Trends in The Arts:
Roma Futurism
Paul-Daniel Golban
Writer
Mihaela Drăgan is an actress, playwright and singer from
Bucharest, Romania. In 2014, she co-founded the independent
Roma feminist theatre company Giuvlipen (meaning feminism
in the Romani language), alongside Zita Moldovan. In 2015, she
played in the movie Aferim!, which won the Silver Bear at Berlin
International Film Festival. She is also a trainer at Theatre of the
Oppressed, where she works with Roma women to tackle the
specific issues they have to deal with. In 2017, she was one of the
six finalists for the International Theatre Award from New York,
an award that recognises women’s excellence from around the
world in the theatre. PEN World Voices International Play Festival
named her one of the ten most respected dramatists in the world.
Some of the themes represented in Giuvlipen’s performances
include topics such as early marriage or arranged marriages, hate
speech, the evictions of Roma people, the hypersexualization of
Roma women by non-Roma men and sexuality issues regarding
the Roma communities. In my talk with her, we focused especially
on the cultural movement created by her and how it impacted her
career, namely Roma futurism, where the figure of the Techno
Witch takes centre stage, and the practice of witchcraft is key in
abolishing systemic racism. I hope that some of the magic of Roma
futurism transpires in this interview.
I would like to start by asking how you came up with the concept of
Roma futurism. In a previous interview, you talked about the artistic
residence in Hong Kong from 2018 at Para Site Contemporary Art
Centre as the birth of the cultural movement, where the position
of the witch and witchcraft take centre stage to create a ritualistic
language where the oppression regarding the Roma reaches its
end. Was that something that came natural to you or was it more
difficult to create this futuristic concept? And what triggered the
idea?
- I wanted to write about Roma futurism and during my residence
I read about Afro futurism and other types of futurism. The idea
of witchcraft came from alchemy and wizards. After I researched
there about magical practices, I came back to Bucharest and I
did the same thing and it was clear then that witchcraft was an
important element in Roma futurism. And it seemed to me that it
is closely linked to technology, as technology seems to retain some
kind of magic.
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