One of the BESTROM main fields of work is the Romani people’s experience in the circus milieu. That is why our Finnish team, based in the University of Helsinki, is currently developing a research to re-map and re-imagine the cosmopolitan area of circuses throughout Europe. This enquiry is about to come to life thanks to BESTROM’s new associate partner, ArtTeatro Ltd, a Finland based production company specialized in creating original circus and theatre performances.
BESTROM held its 2nd Seminar at the University of Helsinki (Finland) on 12th and 13th December 2019. Our purpose for this meeting was to check the progress of our respective case studies and to plan the collective schedule for the months ahead.
Between 15 January 1941 and 25 November 1942, French authorities interned 1334 Romani men, women and children in the Rivesaltes camp (South France). The Memorial recently opened on the site camp pays tribute to them through a new temporary exhibition, Roma Memory, on the history of Roma culture, persecution and genocide in the 20th and 21st centuries.
In our research project, exploring Romani contributions to EU public space, with a focus on markets and fairs in the UK and in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we find Romani and non Romani actors caught up in events that are embedded in, or lead up to, world wars, changes in economies, industries, and urban and rural societies, and with this documents and occurrences that are at once distant from and reflective of contemporary issues and actions.