Destruction has no covering: artists and the rwandan genocide1

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 This paper was originally read at the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Galway, Ireland, June 2003. 2 Jeffrey Gettleman, "Art attempts to imitate Iraq life in all of its chaos and misery," The New York Times, July 25, 2004, Section 1, pp 1, 8. 3 Jeffrey Gettleman, "Art attempts to imitate Iraq life in all of its chaos and misery," The New York Times, July 25, 2004, Section 1, pp 1, 8., p 1. 4 Jeffrey Gettleman, "Art attempts to imitate Iraq life in all of its chaos and misery," The New York Times, July 25, 2004, Section 1, pp 1, 8., p 1. 5 Michael Rothberg, Traumatic Realism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), p 49. 6 www.ppu.org.uk/peacematters/pre99/pm_autumn98b.html http://homepage.mac.com/wbaltyn/books/formostofit.html and http://www.amber-online.com/html/formostofitihavenowords.html 7 Simon Norfolk, For Most of It I Have No Words: Genocide, Landscape, Memory (London: Dewi Lewis Publishing, 1998). 8 Valentina's Nightmare was broadcast in April 1997 (see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/) while Ghosts of Rwanda was used to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the genocide in April 2004. See: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/ 9 See http://www.papaink.org/gallery/home/artist/images/165.html 10 Richard A. Salem, ed., Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda: Drawings by Child Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 (New York: Friendship Press, 2000), p 15. 11 http://www.papaink.org/gallery/home/picture/display/2960.html. 12 http://www.lnsart.com/Rwandan_Refugees,_A_Story_of_Life_%20Exhibit.htm 13 http://voice.aiga.org/speakers/jaar_alfredo.html 14 http://www.plazm.com/salon/archive/default.asp 15 Rothberg, pp 80-81. 16 Rothberg, pp 80-81. 17 Rothberg, pp 80-81. 18 Rothberg, pp 80-81. 19 Debra Bricker Balken, The Lament of Images (Cambridge, MA: Lisa Visual Arts Center, 1999), p 13 20 Debra Bricker Balken, The Lament of Images (Cambridge, MA: Lisa Visual Arts Center, 1999), p 13, p 17. 21 Jaar as quoted in Balken, p 17. 22 Jaar as quoted in Balken, p 20. 23 For the classroom and the teaching of genocide, the sending of dramatic short notes and even postcards by students to others can be a useful device for connecting classroom to some level of activism when a human rights event is involved. With such "actions," students can avoid being accused of being silent bystanders. For example, a postcard "action" sent by students to parents, relatives and friends saying "genocide is occurring in_! What are you doing about it?" immediately relieves the students from the burden of being silent bystanders. 24 Balken, p 59, and Jaar, op cit, p 82. 25 Jaar, op cit, p 59. 26 Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell (New York: Basic Books, 2002). 27 Jaar, Let There Be Light: The Rwanda Project 1994–1998 (Barcelona: Centre d'art Santa Monica, ACTAR, 1998). 28 For more sources, especially for use in teaching, about art and the Rwandan genocide, there is the World Wide Web. See especially a United Nations sponsored "Lesson plans for ages 12–14 in art: repatriation and graphic communication" that focuses on the Rwandan refugee problem in Zaire and Tanzania, and uses some art ideas in an interesting way. The unit was designed to suggest how art could be used to help refugees return to their home. The lesson plans recommends use of a video plus posing several questions that might be explored in art: going back to rebuild the family home; going back to till the land, plant and harvest, to have enough to eat; going back to be among family and friends; going back to receive education or to earn an income (http://www.unhcr.ch/teach/tchart/12-14lp. htm). 29 David Levi-Strauss, "A sea of grief is not a proscenium," in Jaar, Let There Be Light. 30 Strauss. 31 Balken, p 61. 32 Rothberg, p 140. 33 http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Visual_Artistic_Resources/Vivian_Bower/vivian_bower.html 34 Dean E. Murphy, "An artist's volatile toy story," Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1997. 35 Romaine Gary, Genghis Cohn (based on novel The Dance of Genghis Cohn). Cast: Robert Lindsay, Diana Rigg, Antony Sher, Director: Elijah Moshinsky (Arts and Entertainment Network Video).