RR Marki is a Swiss Roma artist living and working in Zurich as a cultural agent, performer, radio presenter and interpreter for Romanes. He was born in 1960 in Skopje, Macedonia as Mustafa Asan, a Roma with Indian roots. After graduating from Skopje Technical University he attended the F+F School for Art and Media Design in Zurich. Together with artist Mo Diener he founded the Roma Jam Session Art Kollektiv (RJSaK) in 2013, a transnational collective which strives to enhance the visibility of Roma and ethnic minorities in contemporary society. He also collaborates with graphic designers Esther Soller and Regula Ehrliholzer and art curators Katharina Morawek, Cathérine Hug, Stefan Wagner and Daniel Kurjakovic, as well as other artists and institutions.

RR Marki has changed his name in order to give answers about his identity and background through his art practice. His work in painting, graphics, mixed media and performance arts presents Roma art, language and a transnational identity with the aim of conferring cultural recognition upon the European Roma minority, as an organic part of global society. His series of watercolour paintings from 2007, Gelem Gelem, reflected on the paradoxical openness and discriminative nature of the world around us, depicting metropolises in which cosmopolitan Roma people feel at home although they are still discriminated against. The Roma Jam Session Art Collective’s 2016 work 1 Roma Manifesto is a series of posters which explore the history of Roma and their displacement from urban areas while also expressing a collection of artistic and political demands about urban space.

Exhibitions

1999
Romani Kultura – Atelier 12qm, Zurich

2007
Gelem Gelem – Karl der Grosse, Zurich

2013
Romanistan, Beyond the Nation – Shedhalle, Zurich

2014
Kiltura Literatura – Maxim, Zurich

2016
45 Edition of Roma Culture – Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich
1 Roma Manifest – during the Parallel Events programme of the Manifesta 11 Biennale, Stadt Zurich

Performances

2013
Guess who is Coming to Dinner – The Proposal, Zurich

2014
What is the color of your car? – ZHdK Zurich

2015
Basic Roma – Kunsthaus Zurich

2016
Roma Dada Avantgarde Estetika – Johann Jacobs Museum, Zurich
Detox Dance – during the Parallel Events programme of the Manifesta 11 Biennale, ZHdK Zurich

Source: the artist