FAMILY ALBUM, 2011-2012

The Family Album was realized in collaboration with the members of 23 Roma families living in Serbia and Montenegro as a participatory art work where our interlocutors got to create representative images of themselves and their families. They were invited to participate in every phase of the project’s realization – from selecting the photographs and framing the narratives accompanying them, to deciding how the family would be photographed at the end. With this work method we tried to avoid as much as possible imposing any pre-designed image of the Roma community, of whom we often know too little but tend to judge it all too easily based on deeply ingrained prejudice, hoping to make the family members’ stories available to the wide public.

We would like to use this opportunity to thank the members of each of the 23 families, who warmly welcomed us in their homes and shared their family stories with us, browsing through their family albums. The hospitality we felt everywhere and our interlocutors’ openness are this project’s most precious ingredient. Also, we would like to thank the many nongovernmental organisations and individuals who have spent years working on the problem of integrating the Roma people in Serbia and Montenegro, whose contacts and recommendations were vital for meeting the families who took part in the project. The Family Album project could not happen without their support.

The Family Album was presented on the exhibitions in Belgrade and Podgorica, while the complete material was published in a publication accompanying the project.

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Family Album publication.pdf

Authors of the project: Ana Adamović, Milica Pekić

Project was realized in collaboration with organization ProStory, Podgorica

Photographs: Ana Adamović (Serbia), Duško Miljanović (Montenegro)

The project is realized in the partnership with Balkan Trust for Democracy supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, and with the support of Roma Decade program by The Open Society Foundation with the contribution of Arts and Culture Program of Budapest, Association Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia supported by the Fund for and Open Society Serbia, and Swiss Cultural program in the Western Balkans.

Exhibition in Belgrade is sponsored by Doga d.o.o. and Robne kuće Beograd.