Prague, Nov 14 (CTK) – The Czech Academy of Fine Arts gallery opened an exhibition entitled “Education Ministry Warning: Segregation Seriously Harms You and People Around You! Vol.2 (retrospect after 10 years)” aimed at the life and segregation of the Roma in the Czech society on Tuesday.
The event is to mark the tenth anniversary of a European Court of Justice (ECJ) verdict condemning the Czech Republic for moving 18 Roma children to “special” schools, calling it a breach of their right to education and discrimination.
The exhibition is open until November 30.
According to NGOs focused on human rights, the ECJ verdict was breakthrough as states began to focus on the termination of segregated and substandard education of the Roma.
Nevertheless, the NGOs and a governmental report on the status of the Roma minority in the country in 2016 state that Roma children are still facing educational segregation.
The international exhibition offers a view of the Roma community as seen with the eyes of Roma artists.
The project’s authors said during Tuesday’s opening the exhibition was to display racism, which could be hidden behind seemingly neutral phrases, and stimulate reflection on what allowed the majority society to isolate its fellow Roma citizens.
Apart from segregation in schools, the exhibition wants to point out the discrimination of the Roma outside the educational system.
Its authors stress positive values with which the Roma can contribute to others, negating the general notion that the Roma are unadaptable and difficult to get on well with.
The works on display include those by Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Austrian and French artists. Political artist Tamara Moyzes of Slovak-Israeli origin is the exhibition’s curator.
The exhibition has obtained support from the Open Society Fund and of the Open Society Justice Initiative.
It is part of the accompanying programme of an international conference on education of the Roma in the Czech Republic, held in Prague on Tuesday and Wednesday.
