Emília Rigová, ROMAFÓBIA, 2026  ^SK

Steel construction, LED light sign, textile, fog/steam, mixed media

The ROMAPHOBIA object draws on the form of a traditional Romani wagon, which the artist transforms into a monumental spatial installation. The title of the work does not refer to Roma people themselves, but to the fear, prejudice, and projections that majority society has long directed onto them.

The tilted wagon, thrown off balance and seemingly frozen in the moment of falling, becomes a metaphor for the distorted relationship between the majority and the Romani minority. The dominant flashing sign ROMAPHOBIA evokes an advertising billboard, a warning signal, or an emergency beacon. Its intermittent light refers to the cyclical recurrence of anti-Roma sentiment, which repeatedly resurfaces in society across various historical and political contexts.

Steam also escapes from the object, creating the impression of an invisible mechanism hidden within the structure. The artist understands it as a metaphor for the manufacture of fear — a process that does not arise spontaneously, but is produced by media, political discourse, stereotypes, and narratives passed down through generations.

ROMAPHOBIA is not a monument to victimhood. Instead, it turns the gaze back onto the viewer and poses the question of whether the problem truly lies with those at whom the fear is directed, or in the very mechanisms that create and sustain that fear. The work thus speaks not about "them", but above all about "us".