Exposition "Ceija Stojka. Garder les yeux ouverts"

Ceija Stojka (pronounced "Tchaïa Stoïka") was born into a Roma family in south-east Austria in 1933. At the time, the Roma - then known as "Gypsies" - were quite numerous in the region. In 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler's racial policy designated the Roma, like Jews and Germans of non-German origin, as foreigners in their own country. Deprived of their rights and persecuted, they were deported to concentration camps. Ceija was arrested on 3 March 1943 with her mother and siblings. She was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, then transferred to Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen, from where she was released alive in May 1945. While the genocide of the Jews - the Shoah - was quickly recognised, the genocide of the Roma, known as Samudaripen in Romani, remained ignored for a long time. In 1988, at the age of 55, Ceija Stojka became the first person in her country to bear witness to this, publishing a book in which she recounts her childhood and the deportation of her family. Soon afterwards, she began to paint and draw, self-taught, to express her "feelings and memories". From then until her death in 2013, she created around 1,000 works. Her art evokes the horrors of the camps as much as the happy moments of her youth or her life after the war. Today, Ceija Stojka is internationally recognised as an artist and an essential witness to the genocide of the Roma. Her work contributes to the memory of this tragedy and to the knowledge of these peoples, who constitute the largest minority in Europe. This exhibition invites you to discover the life and work of this exceptional woman. 112 paintings and drawings are presented, the result of a joint project by the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie and the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation in Besançon. Ceija Stojka's work is traditionally divided between "light works", landscapes and scenes evoking Gypsy life in caravans, and "dark works", which bear witness to the terrible years of deportation. Beyond this binary vision, the exhibition invites you to discover his works through the prism of the eye, a recurring and polysemous motif in his paintings and drawings. From the beauty of nature to the violence of the camps, Ceija Stojka offers a lucid, sensitive and profoundly human view of the world. The exhibition concludes with a focus on the situation of Roma in France during the Second World War, based on the example of the internment camp that existed at Arc-et-Senans (Doubs) between 1941 and 1943.

Dates

Opening periods

Low season from 2 November to 31 March (excluding school holidays): Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday / 2pm-6pm High season from 1 April to 31 October, and during zone A school holidays: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday / 10am-12.30pm 2pm-6pm All year round: Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays / 10am-6pm non-stop Closed on Tuesdays.

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	MINI	Max
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Basic rate	9 €	10 €
Reduced rate	4.5 €	-

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