In order to unmask the models of market-oriented welfare, and the commercialization of public services to the European precarious class who is denied the right to urban living, Rädle & Jeremić point to the perfidious system developed in the city of Rome, where Roma are housed in ghettoized container settlements and monitored by security guards. The video animation “The Housing Question” incorporates animated drawings of the city of Rome and the speech of three characters: an elderly woman who survived a concentration camp in Germany and two younger male characters who live in contemporary ghettoized settlements in Rome. The animation emphasizes the continuity of European racist policies towards Roma, situating their speech in the familiar historical setting of the city or places in Rome, Italy, such as Casilina 700 and 900 where settlements have been demolished and their inhabitants relocated to containers.
Rena Rädle (1970, Germany) and Vladan Jeremić (1975, Serbia) are artists, activists and cultural workers. Rena Rädle graduated at Kunsthochschule Kassel, Germany. Vladan Jeremić holds an MA degree from the University of Arts in Belgrade. They work together since 2002 and are the founders of “Biro Beograd”, an association that provides a platform for critical practice that goes beyond conventional forms of contemporary art, cultural and political activism. Their artistic practice is placed in the field of intersections between contemporary art and political activism. The current focus of their research is the significance of modernist urbanism today, and the emerging social movements, such as Roma emancipation movements in Europe.
