Cool Romani

It’s Saturday evening. We’re in the heart of Budapest’s lively downtown right next to the Basilica in the open house once maintained by the Madarász Family. The rich make collection of the KuglerArt Gallery of Roma fine artists, which evokes this admirable past and closely adheres to it, is presented to the general public and cultural connoisseur. We are also celebrating the new neighbours moving in to the house that are already here-dweller artist communities,  as well as Roma art above all.  On the alluring walls of the stairways filled with painting by various Roma contemporary artists, namely, János Bogdán Amigó és Kállai Henrik, artistic photos by Erika Lakatos, accessories made by Roma women depicting their children’s drawings under the direction of the Igazgyöngy (Pearl) Foundation, the drawings of the children integrated in the Treasure Island Regional School Study Hall project implemented in the northern region of the country in the Edelény Micro-Region by the Bhim Rao Association. In the new artistic platform the new Romani Design’s new sallon (show room) was launched, for the opening of which a large crowd turned out on this warm October evening.

After the welcome speeches presented by the hosts Edit Kőszegi and Erika Varga, the audience was given a taste of the fantastic collection of clothes featuring Roma traditional designs and contemporary fashion clothes on show and sale on the second floor of Romani Design. Over the past few years, this fashion initiative was so successful and developed so rapidly that it grew out of its former studio in Akácfa Street in the 7th District of Budapest, which operated as the starting base of the brand and expressing the message that it goals.

The hardly older than two and a half year working brand, this experimental social cooperative initiative, which nonetheless had a very distinct purpose with the expectation of what the Hungarian society might respond to their hard-work. They seem to have been succeeding much! Romani Design grew with such speed that for today in Hungary, the design workshop has one of the greatest reputation that is connected to Roma issues. The time has now come for Erika Varga and Helena to move beyond the borders and step out on the international stage from the heart of Budapest. In other words, the time is ripe to proudly mediate Roma traditions dressed up in a modern guise beyond the boundaries of this country.

A special guest arrived after the fashion show and the introduction of the  Romani Design’s scholarship programme, namely, the celebrity singer Soma-alias Gyöngyi Spitzer- who, after making the audience laugh, sang the Roma national anthem in both Romani and Hungarian language, that is again showing us how admirable she is. Naturally, culinary delights could not be missing either. Guests could indulge in the scrumptious potato and meat dish sizzling in the courtyard or the wonderful stuffed cabbages made especially for this occasion by Erika and Helena’s mother, Margitka Balogh. Naturally, discussions were also taking place in the saloon all night long, which naturally, could not focus on anything other than the situation and potential opportunity expectations of Roma, as people, and ways to break out, the future view of Roma in the current Hungarian social context-all these above in the perspectives of art.

It is exactly culture and its diverse representations that constitute the key means for promoting acceptance, tolerance and social solidarity and combating and changing prejudice.