The politics of "Roma inclusion" at the 52nd venice art biennale

Abstract

At its 52nd edition, the Venice Biennale featured an ethnic collective: the Roma Pavilion. This particular edition signified an important decision on the part of the Biennial's organizers in their willingness to incorporate Europe's largest ethnic minority into the body of an international blockbuster exhibition. By taking into account the consequences of the collapse of communist regime in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, the enlargement of the EU and the effects of neoliberal policies in the region, this article explores the ways in which the politics of "Roma inclusion" played out in this art exhibition. Considering the project called the "decade of Roma inclusion 2005-2015" that is supported by the Open Society Institute and the World Bank, and endorsed by the prime ministers of eight CEE countries, this question is very timely: did this particular place of Roma art, sponsored by philanthropy in the corporate environment of a major art institution, aim for negotiating the Roma's "particular political vocabulary" in need to be visible to the diverse Roma populations around Europe or was this exhibition part of the institutional creativity aimed at the socio-political integration of the former communist Europe into the global economic circuits?