Romani artist Norbert Olah reflects on identity in Hungary
In Hungary, Romani artist Norbert Olah has devoted his work to the themes of identity, discrimination and social exclusion. Previously, he avoided emphasizing his Romani background in his works because he did not want to be perceived solely as a “Romani artist.” Deutsche Welle reports.
Olah works at Budapest’s Bura Galeria, which Romani activists founded in 2021 in the city’s 8th district. The gallery has become a platform for contemporary Romani art. According to the artist, Romani culture and art are often regarded in artistic circles as naive, unprofessional, unsophisticated or kitschy.
A work about prejudice
In 2021, during OFF-Biennale Budapest, Olah and his father built a brick wall in front of the entrance to a building that had previously housed the Roma Parliament, a cultural center with an art collection, archive, library and events program. Viktor Orban’s government evicted the center from the building in 2016, citing the dangerous condition of the structures and promising to establish a national Roma center there. According to DW, the building has stood empty ever since.
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The installation was titled “Fears of a Romani Artist.” The words “integration,” “assimilation” and “segregation” were engraved on the bricks. Several weeks later, Olah smashed the wall with a sledgehammer during a performance. In the accompanying text, he raised questions about expectations of artists of Romani origin and the connection between ethnicity and aesthetics.
Romani futurism
One of the central themes of Olah’s work has been power, abuse of power and anti-Gypsyism in Hungary. In 2024, he founded the art collective Gypsy Criminals together with a friend and his miniature pinscher. The name ironically refers to wording in Hungarian crime statistics that right-wing politicians used to spread the notion that all Roma are criminals.
In a new project, Olah turns to Romani futurism: he creates images of a Romani couple on Mars, a Romani flag on the Moon and an astronaut with a traditional Cegléd water jug, which Romani musicians use as a percussion instrument. For the artist, space travel is a metaphor for the social advancement of people and communities overcoming barriers related to origin, poverty or life as a minority.
