Description
The needs addressed by the project emerge from the finding that the intercultural dialogue between Roma population and the majority is still ineffective. There is a need for developing the intercultural dialogue and for increasing the Roma minority’s degree of understanding about their way of life and, especially, the changing of the perception of the Roma by means of cultural protection of their identity: immortalization of written culture, physiognomy and expressiveness through photographs and histories. By contributing to changing the perception of the majority population towards the Roma’s people, in a favorable way, their integration can become easier and their economic and social status can improve. The objective is stimulating intercultural dialogue and increase understanding of the way of living and culture of the Roma’s people in Baragan. Specific objectives include: increasing the Romanian photo artists’ interest towards the Roma community, increasing the knowledge of Baragan Roma oral culture and elements of traditional civilization and development of methods of cultural protection for Roma minority’s identity. The main target groups are photo artists, Roma communities in Baragan Plain, the public, but also indirect target groups, such as representatives of local authorities, the families and friends of the participant artists and of those who will participate at the photo exhibition. The main activities are the conduct of a photo contest and organizing an exhibition. The contest will consist in encouraging photo artists to take photos in the Baragan Roma community and to upload them in their accounts on the project’s website. The best three photos declared so by the jury plus the most popular photo voted by the visitors of the site will win prizes.
Summary of project results
The needs identified in the writing phase of the project were: Roma’s association with attributes such as "uneducated / uncivilized"; the majority population’s refuse to have Roma neighbors; the majority population’s disagreement so that Roma history and culture be taught in school. Roma community identity is affirmed by a double approach, artistic and ethnographic documentary. In terms of ethnographic documentary affirmation was made through the inventory of the paper "Roma in Baragan - a lifestyle inventory" of some elements of oral culture and civilization of Roma. Because the Roma community has kept the identity especially in the oral culture, stories that were collected and published express the ethnic and cultural profile, revealing an array of thought and philosophies of life whose knowledge of the majority community of Romanians lead to a rapprochement between two ethnicities. Images captured in photographs by artists photographers, photography contest participants, revealed peculiarities of the Roma lifestyle, attitudes, emotions, feelings but also behaviors or habits. The main deliverables produced within the project were: feedback questionnaires from conferences release/ closure of the project; 1 web page; 1 Facebook account; database of the participants in the contest; database of the contest photos; 1 questionnaire model; 1 interview guide model; over 50 photos of the fieldwork; over 10 audio recordings of the fieldwork; 200 invitations to participate in exhibition; 15 framed photos, 10 roll-ups for arranging exhibition; 300 photos from the vernissage; 2 press conferences (launching and closing project);40 radio ads; 20 TV ads; 1000 printed copies of the work "Roma in Baragan – a lifestyle inventory"; 1000 printed copies of the exhibition catalog; 1133 photos of the itinerary; 100 exhibition itinerary posters; 10 itinerary exhibition roll-ups that were donated to the halls of the 10 localities included in the project. The work "Roma in Baragan – a lifestyle inventory", resulting in the field campaign, the photo exhibition held in the temporary exhibition hall of the partner and the itineration in 10 Roma communities led to a better understanding by the general public of Roma oral culture and traditional civilization this representing an extra step in the process of understanding and acceptance of cultural diversity of the Roma community by the majority community.
Summary of bilateral results