As part of the RISE UP Project, a travelling visual art exhibition was created, featuring artworks from members of minoritised language communities as well as informative panels about the five communities that the project is focused on. Throughout 2025, the exhibition travelled across Europe, stopping at each of the five communities for a couple of days.

RISE UP aims to empower minoritised language communities and collaborate with them on actions and outputs designed to support their languages and heritage. As part of its activities, RISE UP created a travelling exhibition about, with and for the five communities it focuses on – Aranese, Aromanian/Vlach, Burgenland Croatian, Cornish, and Seto.

At the core of the exhibition were five artworks, each created by one artist from the five selected language communities. These artists – Lianne Wilson (Cornish), Viktoria Ratasich (Burgenland Croatian), Ricard Novell (Aranese), Teano Kardula (Aromanian) and Yyhely Hälvin (Seto) – were commissioned to create a piece that communicates a message, image, or  feeling they would like to share, asking questions such as “What would you say to the community?”, or “What would you like to say to people from outside your community?”. Alongside the artworks, the exhibition included seven informative panels, two about RISE UP and the exhibition in general, and one providing background information on each of the five communities and their languages.

For its first stop in March 2025, the exhibition travelled to Redruth, Cornwall (UK), where it was set up as part of the local St. Piran’s Day activities. The exhibition culminated in a reading by Lianne Wilson, who shared some of her (at the time) soon-to-be-published bilingual (Cornish & English) poetry with the visitors.

After Cornwall, the exhibition paid a visit to Skopje (North Macedonia) in June 2025. Hosted in collaboration with the Aromanian youth organisation TIHE, activities accompanying the exhibition included poetry readings, an Aromanian music concert, and a speech on language, identity and traditional culture.

The third stop of the exhibition was Les in Val d’Aran (Catalonia, Spain) in August 2025, where the event was co-organised with the Ajuntament de Les and the traditional dance group Es Corbilhuèrs de Les. Activities that took place alongside the exhibition were a lesson on traditional Aranese clothing, a storytelling activity for young visitors, and a boardgame afternoon.

The exhibition then travelled on to Hrvatske Jandrof (Slovakia), where it featured as part of the Burgenland Croatian youth festival Dan Mladine in September 2025. Accompanying the exhibition, the Burgenland Croatian artist Viktoria Ratasich hosted a multilingual feminist cross-stitch workshop, encouraging participants to express messages through crafts.

Finally, the exhibition came to Värska, Setomaa (Estonia), where it was inaugurated in October 2025 as part of  Seto week with a performance by the Mar´atsäuk Seto Leelo youth choir.

To increase the accessibility and visibility of each venue’s local minoritised language, the panels were translated into various languages for printed hand-outs, while the minoritised language was printed and displayed on the large exhibition panels. After each stop, the exhibition materials were gifted to a local organisation, ensuring that the exhibition has an opportunity to live on and be displayed at further occasions in the future.

Links

RISE UP Project Website: www.riseupproject.eu

Travelling Exhibition: https://www.riseupproject.eu/exhibition/

Keywords

Travelling exhibition, minoritised languages, minority communities, art, artworks, Aranese, Aromanian, Vlach, Burgenland Croatian, Cornish, Seto