Mirga-Tas' textile works challenge antiziganist stereotypes

In textile works, installations, paintings and sculptures, Małgorzata Mirga-Tas deals with antiziganist stereotypes and engages in building an affirmative and situated iconography of Roma communities from the perspective of a feminism of minority. In January 2023 Göteborgs Konsthall presents the solo exhibition Suno Mange Dzalas / I have a dream with the Polish-Romani artist.

In portraying scenes from everyday life in Roma communities and settlements, Mirga-Tas challenges stereotypical depictions of Romani people, both in the past and present. She is especially recognised for her monumental textiles, sewn out of clothes from her family and members of her community. She creates colourful visual narratives that integrate references from art history, personal observations, Roma activism and historical symbols that fill Roma identity, history and community with a sense of pride. Several works tenderly portray the lives and everyday existence of Romani women in rich detail, highlighting the important role of women in the public and private spheres.

The exhibition Suno Mange Dzalas, which is romani for I have a dream, alludes to the famous speech given by Martin Luther King in 1962. The titel is a strong commentary to the dreams and hopes of every day life as well as the political struggle and dream of a society free from oppressive structures, discrimination and inequality.

New works based on Swedish Roma history

In 2011, Mirga-Tas created Poland’s first public monument honouring the Roma victims of the Holocaust during the Second World War, where nearly half a million Roma were killed by the Nazis. A few years later, the monument was vandalised by unknown perpetrators, and Mirga-Tas used the fragments of the sculpture to create a new sculptural work illustrating the mechanisms of racist violence.

The exhibition at Göteborgs Konsthall fetaures nine new works based on Swedish Roma history and experiences

– We are very proud to present Małgorzata Mirga-Tas' fantastic artistry at Göteborgs Konsthall. Her magnificent and colourful work, shown for the first time in Scandinavia, span the personal and the political. It is an important contribution to making the Romani experience visible, in particular women's history. Entering Mirga-Tas' artistic universe has strengthened my faith in the collective power and ability of art to be a transformative force in society, says Stina Edblom, Artistic Director of Göteborgs Konsthall.

About the artist

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, born 1989, lives and works in Czarna Góra in Spisz in Poland.

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas lives and works in Czarna Góra in Spisz in Poland. She graduated from the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (2004). Since 2011 she has been organizing the international artistic residency program Jaw Dikh! in Czarna Góra, intended for Roma and non-Roma artists.

In 2022 Mirga-Tas was the first Roma artist to represent Poland at the Venice Biennale.and her works have been shown at several solo and group exhibitions, including the 11th Berlin Biennale (2020), the Moravian Gallery in Brno (2017), the Center of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko (2020), Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2020), at the Art Encounters Biennale in Timişoara (2019), Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Kulturen der Welt in Cologne.

Mirga-Tas has received the Polityka’s Passport for best artist from Poland in 2020, the Maria Anto and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven Art Prize for a Young Polish Artist (2021) counteracting exclusion, racial discrimination, and xenophobia.

The exhibition Suno Mange Dzalas / I have a dream opens on January 28 and runs until April 16, 2023 and is curated by Göteborgs Konsthall's Artistic Director, Stina Edblom, and exhibition curator, Liv Stoltz.

The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Polish Institute in Stockholm.