Małgorzata Mirga-Tas

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s art is dedicated to the world of Roma culture. In her detailed, realistic depictions, she portrays everyday scenes – people smoking a cigarette, playing cards, or hanging up laundry. At Kunsthaus Bregenz, she is also presenting sculptures created especially for these rooms. They draw on mythical narratives and are at the same time symbols of the contemporary human condition.

Mirga-Tas gained international recognition in 2022 at the Venice Biennale, where she lined the Polish Pavilion with large-scale textile works. The three registers of images quote representations of months inspired by a famous Italian Renaissance fresco cycle: the calendar in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara. The zodiac signs in the center of her work are flanked by near life-size portraits. The top, colorful frieze tells the story of the Roma and their exodus to Europe. It is a narrative of migration and nomadic life, brought to life in a depiction of historical clothing, animals, and expansive landscapes. The bottom register shows scenes of contemporary daily life – community, femininity, friendship, and family.

By reclaiming their own narratives, the Roma community breaks with the centuries-old images of the other projected onto them by sections of society. The technique of fabric collage picks up on Roma craftsmanship. Yet Mirga-Tas’s textile art is much more than a tribute to traditional women’s work. She elevates sewing to the rank of political practice. One of her pictures shows a self-portrait of her sewing outside with other women. These female figures are not passive actors, but protagonists of their own lives. In Mirga-Tas’s art, work appears not as a burden, but as a source of identity and community.

Exhibited on the first floor are the Jangare, large wax figures that, as Mirga-Tas explains, “radiate charm but also protect people.” In contrast to the colorful fabric works, these sculptures are monochrome. Their bodies appear massive and leaden, although they are made of soft, malleable material. Their abstract muscular structures are reminiscent of archaic statues from ancient times or the idols of propaganda art. But the Jangare are not heroic figures. They are faceless, silent companions with a slightly hunched posture. Their expressive style suggests their vulnerability. In the background, hanging textile pictures depict houses, but also women who sew and weave Jangare – a magical combination of textile art and sculptural presence.

On the second floor, Mirga-Tas focuses on the image of the blacksmith, inspired by a poem by the Roma poet Jan Mirga. “My grandfather was a blacksmith,” she says, “so there is a portrait of him and my uncle Augustin here.” The poem not only describes the blacksmith’s craft but uses it as a metaphor for the fate of the Roma. It speaks of a “lump of expressionless iron” from which a new form is forged in the fire – an allegory of the Roma culture’s resilience. Despite adverse circumstances, poverty and exclusion, strength and renewal arise. The tools – hoes, axes, horseshoes – represent craftsmanship, but also symbolize the art of survival and adaptability. The poem also draws on other, classically poetic motifs, such as dance, the moon, longing, and melancholy, as well as freedom and intoxication. Last but not least, it also mentions the peregrine falcon, a recurring symbol of freedom, pride, and energy in many of Mirga-Tas’s works.

The top floor leads visitors into a world of magic. Here we encounter three monumental bears made of wax. These mythical creatures can also be found in other works, embedded in landscapes or, as animal friends, even in the vicinity of humans. Nature appears simultaneously as an idyll and as a resonance chamber for stories in which dream, ritual, and memory join together.

The exhibition is titled Tełe Ćerhenia Jekh Jag (Under the starry heavens a fire burns).

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (b. 1978, Zakopane) lives and works in Czarna Góra. Her portrayals adopt the perspective of “minority feminism,” consciously advocating for women’s strength while also acknowledging the artist’s own cultural roots. She was the official Polish representative at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, the first Roma artist to represent any country. Her works have been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions, Including the Kunstmuseum Luzern in 2025, at Tate St Ives, Bonnefanten in Maastricht, both in 2024, the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Sevilla, Barbican in London, the Brücke Museum in Berlin, and Göteborgs Konsthall, and the International Cultural Centre in Kraków, all in 2023, the Polish Sculpture Center in Oronsko and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, both in 2020. Additionally, she participated at the Kortrijk Triennial in 2024, at the 14th Gwangju Biennale in 2023, at documenta15 in Kassel in 2022, at the Guangzhou Triennale in China in 2021, at the 3rd Autostrada Biennale in Prizren in 2021, at the Art Encounters Biennale in Timișoara in 2019 and 2021, as well as at the 11th Berlin Biennale in 2020.