KIBA LUMBERG (artist, Finland)

Diary of a Mad Artist

2010–2011, comic book, installation, drawings, dimensions variable

Artist Kiba Lumberg (with Kaarina Majander, Free Zone/Vapaa Vyohyke) created the comic strip book Diary of a Mad Artist (2010–2011) in direct response to the double bind and troubled relation of the artist towards the representation of Roma in contemporary Finnish society but also towards Roma self-representation. In a rough, ironic, and often sad way her work touches upon the issues that a Roma woman artist faces when her lifestyle, sexuality, and appearance do not fit into expected rules of behavior. On the one hand she is not accepted by her own traditional Roma community for being too liberal, and on the other hand she cannot fulfill the expectations of the Finnish cultural context because she is perceived to be over-determined by her Roma background. In both cases, “crazy” is the adjective that is often assigned to her and it sticks all too easily. The artist’s gender and sexual orientation, underscored by her profession as an artist and her culture, are interwoven and create a manifold identity full of inner contradictions. Yet life on the edge of these two worlds could be exactly the space where a new subjectivity is born, a loudly speaking subject who testifies about her disenchantments, while simultaneously constructing her singular destiny with confidence. (Suzana Milevska)