PROOF Media forSocial Justice©

POSTER PROJECTTHE RESCUERS

ARTWALK PORT MACQUARIE 2016DESIGN BRIEF

Compiled by Willhemina Wahlin

“You are our guest, and if somebody must die in this house, they will first have to kill my brother and me, and then you.”

– Đorđe “Đojo” Krstić - Bosnia & HerzegovinaCover Photo: Đorđe “Đojo” Krstić, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Photo: Mirko Pincelli

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Introduction

This brief outlines the plans for designing a projected version of “The Rescuers” exhibition for the inaugural Port Macquarie-Hastings Council’s Artwalk in April, 2016. The exhibition is part of my practice-led PhD research, which explores the design of typographic representations of testimony in difficult exhibitions.1 This brief will outline the background and aims of the project and its stakeholders, the context of the public space into which it will be displayed, and an overview of exhibition contents.

1 “Difficult exhibitions” refer to those that contain difficult knowledge topics, such as genocide, gender violence, wars and contested histories. For more information, see Pitt & Brtizman (2003).

About The Rescuers

“The Rescuers” is a project developed by PROOF: Media for Social Justice, a non-profit organisation based in New York that “uses visual storytelling to highlight human rights and promote peacebuilding” (PROOF: Media for Social Justice, 2015). The exhibitions fouses on rescuer behaviour during times of genocide in Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Cambodia and Holocaust Europe.

The project began as a collaboration between PROOF’s Executive Director, Leora Kahn, and several photojournalists who photographed the rescuers on location. The result is a series of powerful first-hand testimonies and portraits taken in-situ of each rescuers, adding to a personalised representation of each.

The Rescuers, on display in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, July 2011. Photo: PROOF.

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The people you will see and read about in “Picturing Moral Courage: The Rescuers” exhibition represent all walks of life. They are farmers, taxi drivers, nuns, mothers, fathers. Why did they, amongst all the other members of their communities, risk everything to save neighbors, friends, and strangers?

This exhibit is designed to raise awareness of the need to stand up against injustices that are still happening in the world around us in order to promote peace. We hope these provocative stories will inspire viewers to think about the courageous choices that can be made every day, and become “rescuers” in their own communities wherever injustice exists.

Four photographers captured these images: in Rwanda, Riccardo Gangale (Rome); in Central Europe, Sonia Folkmann (Poland); in Cambodia, Nicolas Axelrod (Australia); and in Bosnia, Paul Lowe (England).

We invite you to “hear” these testimonies with empathy and to connect to the hero within yourself.”

“They come from different Regions and different times: Central Europe, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. For many, this is the first time they have told their stories. some risked their lives again in the telling.

– PROOF: Media for Social Justice (2015)

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⊲⊲ Bilingual exhibit for Cambodia (Khmer and English) designed and opened at Meta House, Phnom Penh, October 2011. Exhibition has travelled across the country with local partner, Youth for Peace.

⊲⊲ Bilingual exhibit for Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian & English) designed with the support of the US Embassy in Sarajevo. Also designed a series of posters for Bosnian high schools in Bosnian.

Previous “Rescuers” ExhibitionsThe Rescuers exhibition has been designed a number of times for different audiences and contexts:

2009-2016 2011-2016⊲⊲ English-language version designed and shown at:

• Yale University

• University of Dayton, Ohio

• Jewish Alumni Center (March 2014)

• Center for the Study of Gender and

• Conflict (CGC, George Mason University, Arlington Campus)

• University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota

• Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

• Jewish Holocaust Centre, Melbourne, Australia

• Raritan Valley Community College, Branchburg, New Jersey

• University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts

• University of Nebraska, Kearney, Nebraska

• International Conference on Transitional Justice, Geneva, Switzerland

• San Diego State University, San Diego, California

• School of International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont

• Putney School and Riveredge, Vermont

• Opening of the Rescuers exhibit in Sarajevo, Bosnia

• Trebinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina

• Srebrenica, Bosnia & Herzegovina

• Brcko, Bosnia & Herzegovina

• Bijeljina, Bosnia & Herzegovina

• Siroki Brijeg, Bosnia & Herzegovina

• Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

⊲⊲ Series of English-language flexi glass panels were designed for display in various locations in the US.

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PROOF: Media for Social Justice is a non-profit organization that was founded by its Executive Director, Leora Kahn, in 2006. It brings together documentarians, photojournalists, designers, education specialists and human rights activists to create compelling exhibitions that highlight human rights issues. In addition to “The Rescuers”, PROOF’s projects include “Ordinary Heroes”, “Child Soldiers: Forced to be Cruel”, “Darfur: Photojournalists Respond”, “The Legacy of Rape”, “Unearthed: Stories of Courage in the Face of Sexual Violence”, “My Body a War Zone” and “Picture Justice”.

PROOF is primarily an organization that creates exhibitions, but behind this is much more. Leora Kahn, a former Fellow in the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University, is a Genocide Studies Scholar whose previous work as a photo editor has provided her with the opportunity to engage a prestigious group of photojournalists in PROOF projects: Q. Sakamaki, Lynsey Addario, Riccardo Gangale, Pete Muller, Sonia Folkmann, Paul Lowe and Colin Findlay, to name a few. Leora was previously the director of photography at Workman Publishing and at Corbis. She has also worked for Time, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, 

About PROOF: Media for Social Justice

The New Yorker, US News and World Report, as well as for the Ford and Annie E. Casey Foundations.  As a curator, she has created exhibitions for the Ford Foundation, ABC Television, Amnesty International, the Women’s Refugee Commission, and the Holocaust Museum in Houston.

PROOF’s work has always fundamentally been about education, and in the previous two years, there has been a more consolidated move into this area with programs like Picture Justice, created in partnership with the United National International School in New York. Picture Justice brings in a range of workshops facilitators, such as photojournalists and specialists in documenting and interview techniques, to not only educate high school students about human rights issues, but to expand their own agency in documenting human rights issues. The interviews, research and images produced by the students are then turned into an exhibition, designed by myself for PROOF.

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PROOF’s other projects also include educational components, either undertaken by PROOF or by partner organisations. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Rescuers exhibition travelled to 13 cities and towns under the name of Ordinary Heroes. This project, managed by PROOF’s local partner, the Post-Conflict Research Centre in BiH, includes workshops with young people and documentary films. In Cambodia, local partner, Youth for Peace, has taken the exhibition to rural areas where it has also run workshops for young people and performance nights. The aim of both PROOF and the local partners, particularly in post-conflict regions such as BiH and Cambodia, is to encourage young people to think about what being an upstander means, to place genocide and upstanding within a global context, and to examine the ways in which ‘otherness’ is created.

PROOF partners with many organisations across a range of issues. In addition to the United National International School, PROOF’s education partners include the University of Dayton, Yale University, Clark University, and the New Visions for Public Schools organisation. Project partners include Amnesty International, the United States Institute of Peace, the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality at Columbia University, TRIAL, the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the Anne Frank Centre USA, the Karuna Centre for Peacebuilding, Democracy Now!, Holocaust Museum Houston, the Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights. Creative partners include Thinc Design and The New School for Design at Parsons in New York and Braenchild Media in Australia.

Khon Ang, Rescuer, Cambodia. Photo: Neang Sokchea

The Rescuers, setting up the display in rural Cambodia. Photo: Youth for Peace.

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As the designer of all of the above-listed versions of “The Rescuers” exhibition, I have developed a very close working relationship with the exhibiting organisation, as well as an in-depth of knowledge of the rescuers’ testimonies and portraits. This will contribute more in-depth background knowledge on the project, which will support the further development of the conceptual theoretical model that is central to my research, the CHaSSMM Model of Analysis. The CHaSSMM Model combines Critical Hermeneutics with Social Semiotic, Multimodal analysis to inform the design process.1

The design of “The Rescuers” for the ArtWalk will differ from other versions that have come before it: first and foremost, this exhibition will be the result of an experimental design process that explores the visual qualities of typography in the visual representation of people’s stories of trauma, and in coming to a greater understanding of the role of the designer in creating those representations.

1 More on this method of analysis will be included in the final exegesis of the research project.

The goal of the design is to further personalise the stories of the individual rescuers by marrying together the connotations of typography wih their testimony and portraits. Typography, being the ‘dress of text’ can be viewed as both raising or lowering the modality of testimony, and can contribute to the interpretive processes of visitors. Rather than designing the exhibition with one or two typefaces, as is a common practice in exhibition design, each rescuer will be allocated their own typeface that will be based on their characteristics: a semiotic analysis of the exhibition content, their testimony and choice of language and cultural context will be taken into account, while critical hermeneutics will enable me to understand the ideological underpinnings of the exhibition.1

1 Stages of the ProjectThe Rescuers Poster Project will be broken up into three stages: The ArtWalk for Port Macquarie-Hastings Council in April 2016, a printed poster exhibition, and a retrospective exhibition for PhD examination in March or April 2017. At the time of writing this brief (March 2016), the ArtWalk will be the main concern, and later additions to this brief will be made after the ArtWalk is shown, to note observations. Observations made during the design process of the projected ArtWalk exhibition will contribute the the design process of the printed poster exhibition.

Design Aims

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Willhemina Wahlin is a Graphic Design Lecturer and PhD Candidate with Charles Sturt University, and also Creative Director for PROOF: Media for Social Justice. Since 2009, she has designed the exhibitions, “Picturing Moral Courage: The Rescuers”, “The Legacy of Rape”, “My Body a War Zone”, “Unearthed: Stories of Courage in the Face of Sexual Violence” and “Child Soldiers: Forced to be Cruel”.

The Rescuers Poster Project is part of Willhemina’s practice-led doctoral research, which focuses on the design of difficult exhibitions. Her research looks into the interpretive process of designing typographic representations of people’s stories of traumatic events that foster an egagement with visitors, while maintaining authenticity of ‘voice’. Click here to find out more.

Project Collaborators Exhibition Aims

The aim of The Rescuers is to encourage people to think about what it means to be a rescuer/upstander within their community: whether it is speaking out against ‘otherisation’, or acting to prevent violence and bullying, the role of the upstander can have a profound effect. By inspiring people to connect with the rescuer within, its also the hope that the speed with which violence can escalate can also be understood, and that otherisation – whether that be in the form of racism or discrimination towards women, the LGBT community or people with disabilities – is one of the most persistent root causes.

The Rescuers brings a global perspective to rescuer behaviour as well. In doing this, it also brings a global perspective to genocide: it is not only one race, group, gender, political party of religious group that participates in this extreme violence, but is a disturbingly human act of atrocity. But what makes one person a perpetrator of violence and another an upstander against it? What would make one person kill a former neighbour and another risk their lives to save them? The Rescuers doesn’t have answers to these larger questions, but instead presents the stories of rescuers in order to encourage visitors to ask themselves: what would you do?

MediaBraenchild

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Exhibition Contents Proposed Rescuers

The Rescuers contains the first-hand testimonies and photographic portraits of rescuers from Rwanda, Cambodia, Holocaust Europe, and Bosnia & Herzegovina. In order to provide visitors with some historical context for the rescuers’ testimonies, the exhibition also includes an introduction from from LGen the Honourable Roméo A. Dallaire, former UN general in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide (Dallaire, 2013), and a graphic that displays a map and background information of each of the conflicts.

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Đorđe “Đojo” Krstić (Photo: Mirko Pincelli)

Suada Šešum (Photo: Paul Lowe)

Hasan Jusovic (Photo: Paul Lowe)

Borivoje & Ljubinka Lelek (Photo: Leora Kahn)

Rwanda

1. Augustine Kamegeri (Photo: Riccardo Gangale)

2. Leonard Rurangirwa (Photo: Riccardo Gangale)

3. Sister Helene (img ver 2) (Photo: Riccardo Gangale)

4. Josephine Dusabimana (Photo: Riccardo Gangale)

Cambodia

1. Hang Romny (Photo: Nicolas Axelrod)

2. Khon Ang (Photo: Neang Sokchea)

3. Ngen Ngon (Photo: Nicolas Axelrod)

4. Meas Preoung (Photo: Neang Sokchea)

Holocaust

1. Truss Menger (Photo: Sonia Folkmann)

2. Andree Gallen (Photo: SoniaFolmann)

3. Cavalier Mario Martella (Photo: Sonia Folkmann)

4. Jan Karel Wijnbergen (Photo: Sonia Folkmann)Leonard Rurangirwa, Rescuer, Rwanda. Photo: Riccardo Gangale.

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“Explore the Port Macquarie CBD through arts and culture! ArtWalk is a multi-venue cultural event that opens our local art galleries and museums and brings art out of the gallery and onto the streets at night!

Digital projections will guide you through on a tour to our top arts and cultural locations throughout the Port Macquarie CBD. Over the evening, take a chance to explore our local collections and discover local artists exhibiting in unconventional spaces. See live art work, music & entertainment in pop-up spaces and businesses around the CBD.

ArtWalk is a free community event that encourages you to experience and explore our arts and cultural aspects in the centre of Port Macquarie. Look out for the ArtWalk logo at participating venues and spaces and join us a for a fun night highlighting our local artisans.”http://www.pmhc.nsw.gov.au/Culture-Sport-Leisure/Art-and-Culture/ArtWalk

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About the Artwalk Exhibition Context

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council will be hosting its inaugural ArtWalk on the evening of 21st April 2016. The council has sought the participation of local artists and businesses in the event: the former to contribute creative works, the latter spaces for work. Some organisations will contribute both.

The aim of the ArtWalk is to showcase artists and local arts businesses by increasing foot traffic to the local CBD. Local participating businesses include The Glasshouse, Sunset Galleries, Hastings Fine Art Gallery, local bars and cafes, hotels and public spaces including the Town Green. Other organisations include the local police and historic buildings, such as the Court House.

Creative works in the event will be displayed within galleries, cafes and bars, as well as in open public spaces. As well as highlighting public art that is already on display in the CBD, the ArtWalk will also include projected installations by a range of local artists. The council have sought permission from local businesses and organisations to use their walls for the event. In the case of The Rescuers exhibition, the wall of the local police station will be used.

As previous designs of the Rescuers have shown, the public space offers a very different experience for visitors of exhibitions (see Wahlin & Kahn 2015). The ArtWalk in Port Macquarie presents a unique opportunity to display a difficult exhibition to passing foot traffic, and it’s important that, from the outset of the design of thi project, the particular dynamics of the ArtWalk be considered. For example, visitors, who will be visiting multiple sites on the night, should be able to capture enough of the rescuers’ stories to make an emotional connection with them, and this must be achieved in a shorter timeframe than is normally associated with the exhibition context.

To address this, quotes from the rescuers and thier images will be displayed together. The quotes will be shorter so that the projections can rotate at a faster pace, attracting attention from passers-by and also maintaining visitor interest. Timing of the exhibition projection will be tested once a number of the panels have been designed.

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Production Notes

Projections

To be produced:

1. Title

2. Introduction by Dellaire

3. Individual country map and info

4. 16 x rescuer panels

• All projections produced with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Premier Pro.

• All images and documents to be set up RBG colour profile.

• Images and text laid out in Illustrator. Text then selected and saved in to Adobe CC libraries as a separate artwork.

• Images and text artwork added on separate layers to Adobe Premier Pro.

• Effects added in Premier Pro.

• Music added (to be chosen).

Lightboxes

Use four light boxes for people to sit on instead of wrapping with printed materials (reduces the project to a concentrated medium, but also invited people to sit down and read rescuers stories. Also consider mats for people to sit down on as well.)

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ResourcesPitt, A., & Britzman, D. (2003). Speculations on qualities of difficult knowledge in teaching and learning: an experiment in psychoanalytic research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(6), 755-776. doi:10.1080/09518390310001632135

PROOF: Media for Social Justice. (2011). Picturing Moral Courage: The Rescuers. In L. Kahn (Ed.), The Rescuers. New York: PROOF: Media for Social Justice.

Wahlin, W., & Kahn, L. (2015). Difficult Exhibitions in Difficult Sites: An Investigation of Exhibition Design Practice for The Rescuers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Design Journal (IN PRESS).

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Willhemina Wahlin

Creative Director, PROOF: Media for Social JusticePhD

Candidate, Charles Sturt University

Email: wwahlin@csu.edu.au

Ph: 0450 885 002

Web: http://www.braenchild.com/ & http://proof.org/

(Photo: Rescuer Truss Menger (Holocaust) / Sonia Folkmann)

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