Carmen Baltzar
Finnish Institute UK and Ireland
2025
Carmen Baltzar is a Finnish-Romani writer, artist and filmmaker living between Helsinki and Lisbon. Her work explores intersections of love and power, the experience of a woman’s body, embodied liberation, alternate feminine realities and Roma life and death.
Carmen curated and co-edited the anthology Ohi – kirjoituksia kuolemasta ja sen vierestä (Past – Writings on Death and Beyond, WSOY 2022), and her prose and poetry has appeared in publications by WSOY, S&S, Kosmos and Kiasma as well as online on Al Jazeera, Yle, Iso Numero and others. Carmen's literary expression imagines past euro patriarchal forms, and her first novel combining text and photography will be published by Kosmos in spring 2026.
Carmen’s most recent short film All the Love in My Body is a portrait of a touristic beach in Greece from the perspective of two young Romani sisters selling toys to beachgoers. Her previous films have screened at Tampere International Film Festival, Helsinki International Film Festival, Savonlinna Nature Film Festival and URB Festival in Kiasma.
Carmen is a recent resident at the Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg, and her work has been supported by the Finnish Film Foundation, Hellenic Film Commission, Kone Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland and others
Finnish Institute UK and Ireland
The Institute supports the internationalisation of Finnish contemporary art and helps artists, researchers and social and cultural actors to create international networks. The Institute was founded in 1991 and it is a non-profit, private foundation funded by The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.
For more information, please visit fininst.uk
