2007 Global Conference on the Prevention of Genocide

IMAGINING THE UNTHINKABLE:

L’exposition du génocide

October 1-14, 2007 - McGill University

In conjunction with the Global Conference on the Prevention of Genocide, McGill University Faculty of Law and the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism hosted a special art exhibition, Imagining the Unthinkable: L'exposition du genocide, which ran from October 1-14. This landmark exhibit brought together exceptional collections of photographs, drawings, survivor's testimonial archives and interactive multimedia from all over the world to make a powerful visual statement on the horrors of genocide. The centerpiece of the exhibition was "The Children of Darfur: Surviving Genocide," a collection of haunting and compelling children's drawings that provided an unforgettable glimpse into life in western Sudan.

At the opening vernissage on October 1st, invited guest speakers included Rupert Bazambanza, Rwandan genocide survivor, graphic artist and author of Smile Through the Tears , and Dr. Josée Leclerc, Professor of Creative Arts Therapies and Fine Arts at Concordia University. As an art therapist, Dr. Leclerc discussed art and the creative process as transformative and therapeutic, explaining that the art produced in the context or aftermath of genocide challenges basic assumptions about identity and healing in times of crisis.

Mr. Bazambanza spoke passionately about his experience as a genocide survivor and his work as a graphic artist who testifies about the tragedy of Rwanda. Through his vivid drawings, Mr. Bazambanza hopes to tell people what it is like to experience genocide in your own country: to see your country, your family and your entire life destroyed. "If it just happens again and again and we don't learn," he asked the audience, "what's it all for?"


		1.USC Shoah Institute Foundation Visual History Archive
		With a collection of nearly 52,000 video testimonies in 32 languages and from 56 countries, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute’s archive is the largest visual history archive in the world. The Institute interviewed Jewish survivors, homosexual survivors, Jehovah’s Witness survivors, liberators and liberation witnesses, political prisoners, rescuers and aid providers, Roma and Sinti survivors, survivors of Eugenics policies, and war crimes trials participants. The Visual History Archive is a web-based software tool that allows researchers to search the Institute’s nearly 52,000 digitized video testimonies using over 50,000 experiential and geographic index terms. The Institute is generously opening its archive to McGill in conjunction with the Global Conference on the Prevention of Genocide.

		2. Pharrajimos: The Fate of the Roma and Sinti during the Holocaust
		This exhibition of contemporary photographs and survivor’s testimonies was organized by the Roma Press Center, the Romedia Foundation and the Rome Museum. It will be brought from Budapest, where it has been hosted by the Holocaust Documentation Center.

		3. We Said Never Again: The Silent Voices of Rwanda
		Twenty-eight teens from six high schools in Markham, Ontario, have collaborated to design and build their own exhibit which tells the story of the Rwandan genocide through multimedia, artifacts, letters and stories. This exhibit is coming to McGill University from the Markham Museum, Markham, Ontario.

		4. United Nations Mobile Exhibition
		This traveling exhibition, organized by the Aegis Trust, is about the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and its lasting consequences. This exhibition was launched at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 7 April 2007, the 13th Anniversary of the beginning of the Rwandan Genocide.

		5. The Children of Darfur: Surviving Genocide
		The drawings that comprise this powerful exhibition were collected by Dr. Jerry Ehrlich, a pediatrician who worked with Doctors Without Borders in Darfur. Dr. Ehrlich told the children, ‘Draw what your life in Darfur is.’ The results give us an unforgettable glimpse into life in western Sudan. These drawings have been exhibited to great acclaim in many cities in North America, and are coming to McGill courtesy of the Darfur Alert Coalition.

		6. Images from Tuol Sleng Prison
		This collection, created by the Cambodia Genocide Program, Yale University, comprises photographs of prisoners being processed into Tuol Sleng prison for interrogation and execution. During the Khmer Rouge regime, from 1975-79, the former high school became “S-21”, headquarters of the Khmer Rouge secret police. Today it is the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide.

		7. Guatemala: Photographs by Jonathan Moller
		American photographer Jonathan Moller has spent much of his career working with the Indigenous Mayan people of Guatemala, who were targets of a genocidal campaign in that country’s civil war. This striking collection, drawn from his book Our Culture is Our Resistance: Repression, Refuge and Healing in Guatemala (2004) and his travelling exhibition Refugees even after Death, show a people’s grief and resilience in the face of a horrific past, and their indomitable hope for a better future.

		8. The Graphic Art of Rupert Bazambanza
		Born in 1975, Bazambanza emigrated from Rwanda to Montreal in 1997 after surviving the genocide that took place there between April and July, 1994. He trained at Académie international du design and now works as a graphic artist. His widely acclaimed graphic novel, "Smile Through the Tears," depicts the true story of a Tutsi family, the Rwangas, and their fate before, during and after the genocide. Bazambanza's work has been analyzed as an example of comic media in conflict resolution by Harvard University and in an article published by the Harvard Negotiation Law Review. He has also lectured extensively on the Rwandan genocide in Canada and the United States.

The Atrium, McGill University Faculty of Law	&	Foyer, McGill University McLennan Library
3660 Peel Street	&	McLennan Library Building

Monday-Friday: 9:00am-8:00pm / Saturday-Sunday: 10:00am-6:00pm

Limited Opening Hours on October 1st, 7th and 9th: closes at 4:45pm

Atrium Open Thanksgiving Monday, 10:00am-6:00pm; McClennan Library closed

Open to the public. Special provisions are being made to accommodate visits by high school students – please contact us.

Book Launch: Hermann Gruenwald, "After Auschwitz: One Man's Story"

Tuesday, October 9, 2007 - Law Faculty Atrium, 5.00pm

Born into priviledge in Hungary, Hermann Gruenwald's idyllic childhood came to an end when he and his family were sent to Auschwitz. In After Auschwitz Gruenwald recounts his story and paints his life onto the larger canvas of some of the great conflicts and movements of the twentieth century. He offers a vivid portrayal of growing up affluent and Jewish in class-conscious Hungary in the interwar period and of the initial promise and disillusioning reality of Hungariancommunism. After Auschwitz also traces Gruenwald's spectacular success in the Montreal garment trade, following his immigration to Canada in 1950. While Gruenwald's Holocaust experience is never far from his thoughts, his determination, tenacity and will to succeed are the common threads that tie together the chapters of his life.