Mo Diener conducts Freedom Songs research in India

Mo Diener is a performance and media artist as well as a community activist who is artistically engaged in developing performances and media work on history and contemporary lives of and in the Roma Community in Switzerland and Europe. Her field work Freedom Songs / Research on Roma Futurism brought her to Rajasthan where the historical narrative of the origins of the Roma now spread all over the globe is located. Her stay in Jodhpur is guided by Kuldeep Kothari from Rupayan Sansthan, the only institute of folk music and art of its kind archives and supports the local minorities in Rajasthan closely since 60 years. Due to this work, the artist is exchanging knowledge and listens to songs and music of significant historical and contemporary value. Generations of memory are stored and again and again and revived in the songs of these former nomadic communities. Mo plans to continue the project research with Kuldeep Kothari / Rupayan Sansthan, Jodhpur and her videographer Nainisha Dedhia, from Bombay.

Arna Jharna, Thar Desert Museum

Rupayan Sansthan

All images (c) Mo Diener. Cover image. Kalbelia. camera: Nainisha Dedhia.

Mo Diener launched “Freedom Songs” in 2015 as part of her Romafuturism project in Switzerland and Europe. Her research in Rajasthan has taken her to important repositories such as Rupayan Sansthan and Arna Jharna, Thar Desert Museum, the knowledge base for indigenous and rural life in North Western Rajasthan. She also visited the Komal Kothari School of Folk Music in Langha village, Jodhpur, where boys aged 7-14 years are educated in music.

These places – particularly Rupayan Sansthan and Arna Jharna – have given Mo an insight in on mapping Roma culture and a base for further developing the project. They also provided more questions on the art platform of the Museum of Conflict where the workshop Freedom Songs will take place. (see poster below)