Bonnefanten Pop-up museum x Cultura Nova 2024

The portraits are collages of fabric. Mirga-Tas herself says she sculpts with fabric. On large canvases, she combines pieces of fabric with drawings and paintings. She uses clothing, sheets, curtains and other household fabrics that she gets or buys from her immediate surroundings. The fabrics are lived-in, and carry memories within them. The creation of these huge works takes a long time and is a collaborative process, in which she gets help from (mostly female) family members and neighbors. Mirga-Tas makes the artworks with a few seamstresses with great expertise. The very act of making together and learning from each other and gaining inspiration gives the work extra meaning.

Mirga-Tas is a Polish artist who belongs to the Roma people. This is a transnational people that has no defined territory and is spread over large parts of the world. It is one of the largest and arguably most discriminated against minorities in Europe. Her art reflects on Roma identity from a feminist perspective. Through her work, she combats the dominant, negative and stereotypical image of the Roma people created for centuries almost exclusively by non-Roma. She shows us an intimate and authentic insight into the Roma community.