Małgorzata Mirga-Tas – a feminist perspective on art and history

Until June 15, Kunstmuseum Luzern presents one of the most interesting women exhibitions of recent times. Polish Romni artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas in her solo exhibition Eine alternative Geschichte, gives a completely different perspective on the history of the Roma people.

One of the most encouraging trends in the world of contemporary art is the increasing representation of women. This is noticeable both when museums take out the works of women artists from their storerooms and put them on public display as part of their permanent collection, and as part of an increasing number of thematic exhibitions.

Switzerland is here, if not ahead of the rest of the planet, then quite on trend. Almost every regional museum today features works by women artists, from Angelica Kauffman to Miriam Cahn, and women’s exhibitions in German-speaking Switzerland are held quite regularly. Over the past couple of years, exhibitions by Käthe Kollwitz and Mona Hatoum, Kiki Kogelnik, and Marina Abramović in Zurich; Katharina Grosse, Marisa Merz and Carol Rama in Bern; Doris Salcedo and Paula Rego in Basel – have been taken place.

One can, of course, complain that Swiss women artists are still underrepresented, but this, unfortunately, is quite in the spirit of the national tradition as in Switzerland it is not customary to «shout» about country’s own celebrities. The only two that come to mind are the rather long-standing exhibition of Meret Oppenheim in Bern and the recent one of Niki de Saint Phalle (being French, she is often associated with Switzerland due to her marriage to Jean Tinguely) or the permanent exhibition of Pippilotti Rist’s Pixelwald in Zurich.

However, addressing «feminine» topics is not enough to talk about the feminization of curatorial thought. It is all the more interesting to see and analyze the exhibition of Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, open until June 15 at Kunstmuseum Luzern, since it is openly feminist – both in theme and in essence.

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas is a Polish Romni, an artist, pedagogue and activist, who was born in Zakopane in 1978. She started out as a sculptor and created a famous monument commemorating the Holocaust of the Romani people, located in Bozenczyn Dolny, but in recent years she has been working mainly with textile. It is fundamentally important for the artist that her art is an expression of her personal history, the history of her family and her people, so she does not buy materials for her work in stores: clothes, old fabrics, household items and jewelry are usually «supplied» by her neighbors, relatives and friends.

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas became truly famous after she represented Poland at the Venice Biennale in 2022, becoming the first Romani artist to represent any country at this world-famous art event. In her solo exhibition at the Polish Pavilion, entitled Re-Enchanting the World, the artist presented an installation consisting of twelve large-format, three-part fabrics textile reinterpreting the ancient Ferrara frescoes from Palazzo Schifanoia. Though, this calendar cycle is not dedicated to either the Olympian gods or the Ferrara nobility. Each month includes three parts: heavenly, family, and earthly life. Mirga-Tas presents the «heavenly» life as the long-term wanderings of the Roma people in different parts of Europe; «earthly» life is depicted in the form of sketches from the daily life of modern Polish Roma (harvesting, playing cards, going to funerals, and so on); and in the middle is the life of Małgorzata, her mother, sisters, and other members of her family, associated with certain zodiac signs.

This now famous composition forms the core of the Lucerne Exhibition. It gives a fairly complete picture of the artist’s method and her feminist optics, and it is no coincidence that it’s called «Re-Enchanting the World». Mirga-Tas is not interested in big historical events, wars, conquests and social activities, but in everyday life, seen through the eyes of women. She makes visible the women’s everyday tremendous work that is traditionally devalued and left behind the scenes.

The idea of the significance of women finds its development in the next hall, where Herstories – huge textile panels made of tablecloths, curtains, bed linen and clothes – are hung, presenting Roma women, both famous and the most ordinary. The portraits are accompanied by detailed stories of each of the heroines and their struggle.

Special attention should be paid to the animated film Noncia, also made by Mirga-Tas in patchwork technique and dedicated to Alfreda Markowska, who saved Romani and Jewish children during the Holocaust in Poland. It impresses not only with its unique technique, but also with its vivid, inspiring story.

Finally, the last room has a completely different scale and focus. Here, we can see several embroidered double-sided screens, so-called paravents, dedicated to pregnancy and children, personal and intimate. Mirga-tas reminds us that women hide from prying eyes when they need personal space and a sense of security, but this does not mean that they always want to be invisible.

Of course, it was easier for Fanni Fetzer, the curator of the Lucerne exhibition, to work with a contemporary activist artist who adheres to feminist optics in her art. It is much more difficult to look at famous female artists of the past, or those we are rediscovering today, from the perspective of modern feminist optics. It would also be interesting and important to look at the work of male artists from a female point of view, without fear that this view may turn out to be very critical.