On 5 August, Lviv will host the opening of the exhibition “Invisible. Resilience: Past and Present of Roma”. The event will begin at 16:00 at the Memorial Museum of Totalitarian Regimes “Territory of Terror” at 45h Chornovola Avenue. Admission to the opening and accompanying events will be free; thereafter, the exhibition can be viewed at the museum’s standard rates.
Through the personal stories of Roma who survived the genocide in Ukraine, the project addresses themes of memory, persecution and Roma identity. The exhibition is conceived as a thematic and narrative exploration of restoring visibility to a community whose voice has long remained muted.
At the heart of the exhibition is Roma identity as a form of resistance, traced from the persecutions of the Second World War to the contemporary civic engagement of Roma communities in Ukraine against the backdrop of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. Through the testimonies of genocide survivors, archival documents, photographs and contemporary artistic media, it presents a journey from silence to voice, from trauma to strength and presence.
A separate section is dedicated to works by contemporary Roma artists — representatives of the second and third generations after the genocide. In particular, the digital works of Nataliia Tomenko reflect on intergenerational trauma, the experience of fear, survival and resilience, bringing together past and present. Complementing them is an animated short film that reveals the living heritage and the shaping of contemporary Roma identity.
The concluding part of the exhibition presents a series of collages by Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Maksymov, featuring current Roma servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as cultural and community figures. These works highlight the contemporary struggle of Roma for dignity, visibility and full participation in the country’s public life.
The exhibition will run from 5 August to 20 September. Visiting hours: Wednesday and Thursday — from 10:00 to 18:00, Friday to Sunday — from 11:00 to 19:00. The organisers ask those wishing to attend the opening itself to register in advance by 3 August via the online form.
The project is being developed by a curatorial team comprising Nataliia Tomenko, Chinara Mazhidova and Volodymyr Yakovenko, with historian Mykhailo Tiahlyi as historical consultant. The contact organisation for the media is the Youth Agency for the Advocacy of Roma Culture “ARKA”, together with the Memorial Museum of Totalitarian Regimes “Territory of Terror”.