Professor Ken Gemes in conversation with Krzysztof Gil Tuesday 8 January, 2019, 7 pm

We have the pleasure of inviting you for a conversation between Krzysztof Gil and Ken Gemes, a Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London.

This event takes place on the last day of Krzysztof Gil’s exhibition, Welcome to the Country Where the Gypsy Has Been Hunted.

The exhibition addresses the legal and social marginalisation of Roma peoples throughout history, that began in fifteenth-century Europe when the Roma people were dissuaded from following their traditional lifestyles for fear of severe punishment or enslavement. The sixteenth century was marked by anti-Roma legislation passed by the-then Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I, which meant that any Roma individual captured throughout the imperial territory could be subjected to torture and extermination. In 1530, Roma people were legally banished from England, and in 1540, from Scotland. In the seventeenth century, a law was in force throughout Germany and the Netherlands according to which anyone could kill Roma without liability, thereby establishing the custom of Roma hunting, or ‘Heidenjachten’. The hunts were official, co-organised by the army and police, and became a form of public entertainment, often with cash prizes awarded for a hunter’s success.