"Invisible. Resilience: The Past and Present of the Roma" — An Exhibition Opens in Odesa

On 4 June at 15:00, the Youth Agency for the Advocacy of Roma Culture ARCA, in partnership with the National Historical and Memorial Reserve Babyn Yar, the Odesa Holocaust Research Center, and the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies, opens the exhibition: Invisible. Resilience: The Past and Present of the Roma.

“It is easy to tell, but hard to live.” — Raisa Andreychenko, Ukrainian Roma genocide survivor

Invisible. Resilience: The Past and Present of the Roma is a thematic and narrative exhibition about reclaiming visibility.

Once silenced, Roma voices now take their place in public memory and contemporary discourse—with courage, clarity, and the right to equality.

At its core, the exhibition explores Roma identity as an act of resistance. It traces a continuous thread from the persecution of Roma during the Second World War to the strength, visibility, and civic engagement of Roma communities in Ukraine today, amid the ongoing struggle for justice during the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Through survivor testimonies, archival documents, historical photographs, and contemporary artistic media, the exhibition reveals how silence is transformed into voice, trauma into strength, and invisibility into presence.

These are not only stories of surviving the past—they are stories of shaping the future.

Curators

Nataliia Tomenko
Chinara Majidova
Volodymyr Yakovenko

Historical Expert: Dr. Mykhaylo Tyaglyy

Free admission

Registration for opening here: https://forms.gle/eXpxS6QveX4nREz26   

Opening Hours

• Tuesday–Thursday: 11:00–16:00

• Friday: 14:00–18:00

• Saturday: 11:00–15:00

Organizers and Partners

The exhibition is created by the Youth Agency for the Advocacy of Roma Culture ARCA in partnership with the National Historical and Memorial Reserve Babyn Yar and the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies.

The project is supported by the Embassy of Germany in Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.