Entering the solo exhibition of contemporary artist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’ works at Kunsthaus Bregenz (KUB) in Austria, viewers first hear the poetry of the Polish-Romani author and poet, Jan Mirga. The poem, Jangare-Bengore, describes the Jangare—monochrome, faceless totemic sculptures placed in the cardinal positions of the room. In contrast, textile works, rich in detail and colour, are displayed on the walls, depicting domestic scenes that recall the Romani artist’s hometown of Czarna Góra in Poland—women sewing, chickens pecking in a front yard, families gathered on wagons. Each aspect of this multimedia show, commissioned by KUB, is a loving tribute by painter, sculptor and social activist Mirga-Tas to her Roma culture. The Roma people are a traditionally nomadic ethnic group who arrived in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries; their lineage goes back to northern India. The history of this community, Europe’s oldest minority, has been marked by violent persecution, exile, forced assimilation and harmful stereotypes. Rather than foregrounding this chequered history, Mirga-Tas weaves a larger narrative about Roma life, mythology and culture. In Tełe Ćerhenia Jekh Jag, on view until September 28, 2025, Mirga-Tas employs the community’s craftsmanship, particularly blacksmithing and textile art, as an allegory for their resilience.

Mirga-Tas’ work draws viewers into the world of the Roma—their everyday life, surroundings and mythology shown as inextricably intertwined and presented as a model for a different mode of existence, one where craft, nature and community are front and centre.

Thomas D. Trummer, the director of Kunsthaus Bregenz, explains the exhibition’s title in a conversation with STIR: “Mirga-Tas asked her uncle, who writes poetry, to create a poem for each floor, which is recited in Polish in the stairwell. Tełe Ćerhenia Jekh Jag roughly translates to ‘A Fire Burns Under the Starry Sky’. It refers to the story of her grandfather and his brother, both of whom were blacksmiths.” From its title to the sound installations that accompany the visual art on each floor, the exhibition is deeply enmeshed with poetry. Three poems by the poet Mirga, corresponding to each section of the exhibition, are read aloud by Hamze Bytyci and Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka, bringing to life the Roma oral tradition.

Beginning on the first floor, works like Miro than, miro smirom (My place, my peace of mind) (2025) depict idyllic, pastoral scenes of home through a fabric collage that patches together textiles of different dyes, patterns and materials. Kana werdan jawela kierdo andro drom (When the wagon is ready to go) (2025) depicts a Roma family looking out from the artwork, the composition recalling a classic family photo. The subjects seem to almost make eye contact with viewers, reversing the colonial gaze. Trummer said, “To be honest, we—and I personally—still have much to learn about Roma culture. In Bregenz, their presence is very tangible, yet many perceptions are shaped not through encounters but through social conditioning, upbringing and, of course, stereotypes. This is precisely what Mirga-Tas’ work addresses: it reflects the preformed, ingrained images and projections of the majority society, which often include stigmatisations. Mirga-Tas’ work exposes and critically engages with such projections.”

Jangare’s Magic is in our hands (2025) shows Roma women sewing together, bringing a blank silhouette to life. This is an example of the thematic centrality of craft to Mirga-Tas’ ekphrastic work—textile is not only the medium but the subject of the artwork; the Jangare too are shown in three forms—poetry, sculpture and collage. They resemble the mythic guardian Golem from Jewish mythology and traditional wax talismans created and used by Roma women to ward off evil. The visual artist imagines the black waxen figurines as being forged in mythic fires; vulnerable, sympathetic protectors of Roma settlements and the natural world which surrounds them. The textile work, then, uplifts women’s craftsmanship to the level of the mythological and spiritual; a political, feminist act creating protective communal bonds.

On the second floor, the artworks become more personal with portraits of the artist’s grandfather, Grandfather Jan (2025), and her uncle, Kovacic Gusteko (Blacksmith Augustyn) (2025). Their influence on Mirga-Tas’ practice and this exhibition is evident—most of the artwork here is a tribute to Roma blacksmiths, their world and families. The artworks are assembled into the shape of a house, driving home the importance of the trade to the community, for example, in Siukar trasta widzian dale Kovaciskri jag (Beautiful metal things come out of the blacksmith’s fire) (2025), which depicts generations of a Roma family gathered outside in the mountains of Czarna Góra, where the men forge metal horseshoes and tools, while a woman weaves yarn. Craft as something that bestows life onto objects and livelihoods on artisans is a uniting theme between the floors.

Blacksmiths, to Mirga-Tas, are demiurges akin to artists and alchemists—transforming metal into objects with life in their forge fire. Mirga’s poem, The Blacksmith, plays from the speakers—“Under the master’s strong hands/hoe, axe and horseshoe quicken to life”. The personal and communal are both thematic and material in this exhibition, as Trummer explains, “The [works] are handmade, created collaboratively and composed from fabrics donated by friends and relatives—gifts carrying personal, biographical and intimate stories and histories. [They] are not made from neutral artistic materials, such as conventional paintings, but are composed of stories drawn from real life and lived experience, embedding personal traces.”

On the third floor are more textile collages, this time in a vertical orientation, suspended from the ceiling. Bears feature in almost all of them and appear as wax sculptures dotted throughout the room. Bears have often been depicted in European imagery of the Roma as chained animals, used for entertainment. Mirga-Tas veers from this stereotypical depiction, showing bears and the Roma coexisting peacefully with one another, symbolising a different, nonviolent relationship between humans and nature.

Mirga-Tas’ work draws viewers into the world of the Roma—their everyday life, surroundings and mythology shown as inextricably intertwined and presented as a model for a different mode of existence, one where craft, nature and community are front and centre. While the artist’s works are undeniably personal, they maintain strong anti-xenophobic and feminist stances. Through the artworks in Tełe Ćerhenia Jekh Jag and the accompanying publication, Mirga-Tas brings to light the living traditions of a persecuted and deeply misunderstood community through contemporary art, transgressing established, restrictive lines artificially separating the animate and inanimate, human and non-human, material and mythical.

The exhibition ‘Tełe Ćerhenia Jekh Jag (under the starry heavens a fire burns)’ will be on view until September 28, 2025, at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria.