Note to Correspondents

PHOTO EXHIBITION TO MARK FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF RWANDA GENOCIDE

 

OPENS AT HEADQUARTERS, 7 APRIL

 

In observance of the fifteenth anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, a joint photographic exhibition will be open to the public in the Main Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby from Tuesday, 7 April.

The exhibition consists of two parts:  “Visions of Rwanda” and “Intended Consequences:  Photographs and Interviews by Jonathan Torgovnik”, which vividly illustrate the lives of genocide survivors in Rwanda today, the challenges they face and their visions for the future.

“Visions of Rwanda:  Images of Survival, Reconciliation, Forgiveness and Hope” illustrates how genocide survivors and perpetrators came together in November 2007 to document their daily lives, hopes, dreams and memories as part of the “Visions of Rwanda” photo project.  The 12 participants included orphans, widows, rape and assault survivors, a judge and perpetrators, some of whom were responsible for the deaths of family members of other participants.  The participants, many of whom had never used a camera before, were trained and given general photography tips by a United Nations facilitator, which enabled them to document topics of importance to them ‑‑ their own “Visions of Rwanda”.  The project and exhibition are an initiative of the Department of Public Information’s Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide and the United Nations.

“Intended Consequences:  Photographs and Interviews by Jonathan Torgovnik” brings together the award-winning photographer’s powerful documentation of the accounts of several Rwandan women who were subjected to sexual violence during the 1994 genocide.  Due to the stigma of rape and “having a child of the militia”, the communities and few surviving relatives of those women have largely shunned them.  The portraits and testimonies featured in “Intended Consequences” offer intensely personal accounts of their experiences of the genocide and the challenges they face today, as well as their conflicted feelings about raising a child who is a reminder of horrors endured.  “Intended Consequences” is supported by the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations and the Department of Public Information.

Mr. Torgovnik will sign copies of Intended Consequences, his book which accompanies the exhibition, in the Main Gallery from 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 7 April.

For media inquiries, please contact Renata Sivacolundhu at tel.:  212 963 2932, e-mail:  sivacolundhu@un.org; or Melanie Nolte at tel.:  917 367 0262, e-mail:  nolte@un.org from the Department of Public Information’s Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide and the United Nations.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, call Jan Arnesen at tel.:  212 963 8531, e-mail:  arnesen@un.org; or Liza Wichmann at tel.:  212 963 0089, e-mail:  or wichmann@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record