EPICENTRE Partners: The Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica
The Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica is EPICENTRE’s Slovak partner. Artist and professor Emília Rigová leads the project component, connecting the Academy’s institutional history with the development of Roma contemporary art in Slovakia.
Rigová’s own relationship with the Academy reflects a remarkable institutional trajectory. She first entered the institution as its only Roma student and later returned as a professor. Her experience brings into focus questions of representation, access and the place of Roma artists within art education and cultural institutions.
Today, another generation encounters Roma contemporary artistic practice within the Academy itself. This connection between personal experience, artistic work and institutional knowledge is central to EPICENTRE’s broader aim: to bring the histories of Roma art into the shared history of contemporary art in Central Europe.
EPICENTRE begins its public programme in Slovakia with an exhibition that brings emerging Roma artistic practice into dialogue with an established Roma artist. The presentation creates a meeting point between generations and invites audiences to consider how artistic knowledge, experience and cultural memory are transmitted.
The Academy’s participation contributes a Slovak perspective to EPICENTRE’s cross-border research into Roma art and cultural history. It also highlights the role that art education and cultural institutions can play in making Roma artistic practices visible and creating opportunities for their continued development.
A history is not only something we inherit. It is something we transmit.
Project: EPICENTRE: Roma History of Contemporaneity in Central Europe
Partner: Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Project representative: Emília Rigová
Project focus: Roma contemporary art, art education and intergenerational exchange
Project website: romacult.eu
