Emília Rigová a.k.a Bari Raklori: Dubito ergo sum!

The programme will include a presentation of her work and thinking. The videoperformance Vomite, ergo sum!, in which the author undergoes a radical bodily experience – the vomiting of a liquid gold substance – is on display in the mentioned long-term exhibition since June 2024. The artist residency and performance is created in collaboration with its curator Lucia Gregorová Stach.

In her performance Dubito ergo sum!, she transforms the gallery space by covering selected exhibited works with textiles featuring her own Roma-inspired patterns. This act of overlaying becomes a metaphorical intervention – highlighting the erasure, de/colonization, and reclamation of Roma identity in historical and cultural narratives. By integrating her unique visual language into the exhibited works, Rigová interrogates their neutrality, drawing attention to the (in)visibility of minority cultures within institutional spaces. The performance engages with the body and materiality, challenging social and aesthetic norms while opening a dialogue between the majority and minority perspectives. It culminates in a reflection on loss, identity, and cultural resilience, framed through the artist´s postfeminist and critical lens.

Emilia Rigová (Bari Raklori) explores social stereotypes and the politics of the body and gender. In her recent work, she particularly explores historical constructions of Roma identity ("romipen") and its thematization of loss. She is interested in the disappearance or, on the contrary, the colonization of the Roma body in the history of European culture and in Slovakia. In 2012 she created her own alter ego BARI RAKLORI, which represents the interconnection of the majority and minority worlds. Through multimedia artworks, she raises questions about the (in)visibility of Roma culture, its imprints in society as well as its future. Emília Rigová is the laureate of prestigious awards such as the Oskar Čepan Award, the Museum of Roma Culture Award and the Tatra Bank Foundation Award.