A Choice to Be Made, a Price to be Paid.

 

The Romani people have never identified themselves with a specific geographic territory. Although they come from India, they have never fought for this place as their ancestral homelans, but instead have fought with their lives to make homes for themselves elsewhere. As Diana Muir emphasizes ‘the Romani people, unique among peoples, have no tradition of an ancient and distant homeland from which their ancestors migrated, nor do they claim the right to national sovereignty in any of the lands where they reside, rather, Romani identity is bound up with the idea of freedom expressed, in part, in having no ties to a homeland.’

Because of the absence of a traditional land concept, the “Romani Phuv” (or  “Romani land”) is a ‘controversial issue that implies different prices to be paid when a decision has to be made’ (as Nicolae Gheorghe argues). Romani phuv is still a dream for many Roma, despite the events of their lives and history. This “land” is alive and continues to live in the hearts of the Roma.

Sead Kazanxhiu’s performance address this situation in today’s context, one in which the Roma are perpetually “located” and “dislocated” for political, economic, and social reasons.

The video documentation of the performance opens a discussion and provokes people’s perception about their relationship with both land and territory.

In this work, Kazanxhiu takes on the role of a chef who prepares a meal with shishik (a kind of soil that Roma use to wash themselves, and that pregnant women in Roma communities use to traditionally eat during their pregnancy). Over the course of the performance, he transforms into the figure of the the bureaucrat, a figure that represents Romani intellectuals who—through their work, effort, negotiations and discussions—have the possibility to make choices that can make this dream to live longer and end the ceaseless game of location and dislocation.

“A CHOICE TO BE MADE, A PRICE TO BE PAID”, writing on the wall in rromani language“RROMANI PHUV” (Romani Land) performance (2016)

Video:                 https://vimeo.com/137530385