"On the Periphery”
Inspired by João Biehl’s Vita, I document the lives of Romani residents in one of Slovakia’s “socially excluded” communities, challenging narratives that obscure or pathologize them. My work seeks to reveal the creativity and persistence that shape everyday life in contexts often marked by abandonment.
Exhibited at the University of Cologne’s Ethno-Symposium (October 2025), this project forms the foundation of my proposed PhD on the aesthetic and sensory worlds of those living on the periphery.
Pamelka, the dancer in this video, is ten years old, though her exact birthdate is unknown. She lives with nine siblings and her parents, in a home where communication takes many forms, as her mother and several siblings are deaf.
A few times each week, she and a couple of her siblings walk ten kilometres to Prešov, where they ask for money to buy medicine, food, and — if they are lucky — a bus ticket for the journey back home. When asked what she would like for Christmas, she replied: “sturdy shoes and fake nails.”
