Denise Lobont "Unweaving Stereotypes"
The project aims to interrogate the stereotypical mentality and social segregation resulting from prejudice in the Romanian territory towards Roma women, starting from clothing expression and cultural appropriation of a heritage by mass consumption.
People photographed are born and work in Romania in different domains like medicine, police, music or political sciences. The picture uses an inauthentic and exoticizing “gypsy” textile material that emphasizes ignorant cliche assumptions from the collective imaginary machine about the history of the protagonists, highlighting their daily experience.
This project unweaves the mechanism of prejudices and challenges the stereotypical generalization bringing to the fore daily experiences of these girls.
Denise Lobonț (b. 1995, Deva) is a graduate of the bachelor’s degree within the Photo-Video Section at the Bucharest National University of Arts in 2017. During the academic period, she received a scholarship from a partner university in France and the period after the bachelor’s degree has been completed by an internship in Paris for 5 months in a photo studio. Currently she has just completed her master’s programme in the same section. Themes that interest her are ethnical minorities, gender identity and fashion in the social context. A leitmotif of her projects is dismantling the gender clichés, collaborating with different artists or models from Bucharest’s underground scenes.
Unweaving Stereotypes it’s been developed within LIFE LONG BURNING 2020, at WASP Working Art Space and Production.
Producer: 4Culture Association
Co-Producer: WASP Studios
Cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. Life Long Burning – Towards A Sustainable Eco-System for Contemporary Dance in Europe is a multi-annual project co-financed by the European Union – Creative Europe Programme.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.
Media partners: Radio România Cultural, Modernism, Zeppelin, Revista ARTA, Designist, feeder.ro, IQads, România Pozitivă
Working and presentation dates:
01.09 – 30.09.2020: production residency at WASP Working Art Space and Production, Bucharest
17-18.10.2020: Unweaving Stereotypes premiere exhibition in the frame of eXplore festival #15, at WASP Working Art Space and Production, Bucharest, on view by appointment until 15th November
GALLERY
