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Małgorzata Mirga-Tas' first Dutch solo exhibition is a first of its kind. At the centre is the series Re-enchanting the World she made for the Venice Biennale. But there will also be works by her that have not been shown before and made especially for this exhibition.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Out of Egypt, 2024, textile and acrylic on canvas. Photo: Bartek Solik. Courtesy of the artist and Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw, Frith Street Gallery, Londen and Karma International, Zürich.
The work of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (Poland, Zakopane, 1978) is a visual sensation that invites deeper reflection. The colours shimmer and the scenes are so vivid that they seem to move.
Mirga-Tas fights the dominant negative and stereotypical image of its Roma people, created for centuries almost exclusively by non-Roma.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Basiawiben predale baba - Music for grandmothers, 2024, textile and acrylic on canvas on wooden stretcher, 160 x 200 cm. Photo: Bartek Solik. Courtesy of the artist and Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw, Frith Street Gallery, Londen and Karma International, Zürich.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas harks back to ancient iconography that she repurposes to tell modern stories.
Overview Re-enchanting the World, Bonnefanten 2024. Photo: Peter Cox.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Re-enchanting the World: March, 2022, mixed media on textilel, 462 x 387 cm. Collection Bonnefanten
The magnum opus Re-enchanting the World brings together all the major themes and visual languages in Mirga-Tas's work. She created these grand works for the Polish pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Bonnefanten reunites the tapestries.
Family, solidarity and togetherness between women in the Roma community are key concepts that form a common thread in Mirga-Tas's work. Exceptional women she puts in Herstories permanent spotlight.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Portrait of Lalla Weiss, 2024, textile and acrylic on canvas on wooden stretcher, 255 x 200 cm. Photo: Bartek Solik. Courtesy of the artist and Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw, Frith Street Gallery, Londen and Karma International, Zürich. .
The Roma community is a non-territorial nation and the largest and probably most discriminated against ethnic minority in Europe.
Exhibition view opening Re-enchanting the World, Bonnefanten 2024. Photo Saverio Sammartino
About the artist
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (Zakopane, 1978) is a Polish artist and activist who belongs to the Roma culture; an originally nomadic people who are spread over large parts of the world. Mirga-Tas works in various media, but is renowned mainly for her large-scale textile works, in which she celebrates the Roma identity from a feminist perspective, stripping it of prejudices. Her career has really taken off in recent years, culminating in her contribution to the Polish pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022.
Re-enchanting the World
The monumental, twelve-part series of panels entitled Re-enchanting the World was originally made for the Polish pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022. The Bonnefanten acquired two parts of this series, which are accompanied in the exhibition by other work that is typical of Mirga-Tas, as well as new works and ones that have never been exhibited before.
The project Re-enchanting the World (2022) is an attempt to expand the art history and idiom of Europe with representations of the Roma culture. For her Polish pavilion, Mirga-Tas created a magical world that is linked to myths, astronomy and ancient customs. The project comprises twelve works, each of which depicts a month of the year. These zodiac signs are often seen in Western European art (usually classical art). We see gods from Ancient Greece and Rome, or Christian motifs: stories and visual motifs that are well-known by Western European standards and can be used almost as a language. But these zodiac signs are very specific to one particular art history in Europe, and they exclude many other cultures.
Central theme: being Roma
The central theme in the work of Mirga-Tas is the experience of being Roma, whereby she always takes a female perspective. In her art, she tries to capture the trans-national identity of the Roma people, but she is also concerned with breaking down the folklore image associated with Roma communities and their culture. At the same time, she shows the enormous impact of colonialism and colonisation on her people. We do not have to look far beyond our borders to find cultures that Europeans regard as ‘non-Western’. Morena Bamberger (Roermond, 1994) created a new work about her Sinti family especially for the museum in dialogue with artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas.
The exhibition has received support from Ammodo.
Ammodo also supports the solo presentation by the Lebanese artist Mounira Al Solh (Beirut, 1978), which will be shown in the Bonnefanten in 2025.
Header: Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Out of Egypt, 2024, textile and acryl on canvas, 300 x 225 cm. Photo: Bartek Solik. Courtesy of the Artist, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warschau, Frith Street Gallery, Londen and Karma International, Zürich.