Gabi Jiménez
Gabi Jiménez - Gadjo Museum
12 Apr – 1 Jun 2024
About
On 11 April 2024, the exhibition 'Musée du Gadjo' by French artist Gabi Jiménez opens at the Kai Dikhas Foundation. Jiménez has long been a renowned artist in France and in the Roma community, having represented France with the first Roma pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007. As a Gitano (the term for Roma*nja in Spain), he has a very special position and perspective as a spokesperson.
His current exhibition plays with precisely this perspective. For a change, those who usually see themselves primarily as the audience of exhibitions, the white dominant society, are exhibited. Jiménez takes his cue from the way in which the history and present of entire ethnic groups was presented in museums at the beginning of the 19th century, while at the same time playing with this representation. His choice of objects makes it clear how distorted and almost unintentionally comical such a display has always been: the German Gadje are represented in this exhibition by Boris Becker, Loriot, Struwwelpeter and Jim Knopf and Lukas the Engine Driver, and randomly thrown together, impressively hideous flea market kitsch is turned into supposedly typical Gadje artefacts. If you consider that many people in this country are likely to quickly think of catchphrases such as "Carmen" and "Esmeralda" as well as golden earrings and long, colourful skirts when it comes to Sinti and Roma, the exhibits are entirely appropriate.
A visit to the Gadjo Museum requires viewers to question the images and stereotypes they are bombarded with every day in museums, the media and academic journals in relation to other cultures. Through a parodic approach, the Gadjo Museum allows visitors to pause and become aware of the dangers of reducing, stereotyping and categorising supposedly different cultures, without a warning finger.
The Gadjo Museum was presented for the first time as part of the "Barvalo" exhibition at the MUCEM (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations), an exhibition conceived in collaboration with the ERIAC (European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture) in Marseille in 2023. "Barvalo" was seen by more than 100,000 visitors and was awarded the prestigious Historia Prix.
Opening: 11 April 2024 - 7 pm
Exhibition: 12 April - 1 June 2024
Admission: free
Opening hours: Thu - Sat: 4 pm to 7 pm and by appointment.
Location: Kai Dikhas Foundation and art space Dikhas Dur, Prinzenstr. 84.2, 10969 Berlin