How the Visual and Textual Poetry of the Rwanda Project by Alfredo Jaar Lends Itself to a ...

92 Pages·2014·2.3 MB·English

by  Briana Gervat

From Epos to Epic:
How the Visual and Textual Poetry of the Rwanda Project by Alfredo Jaar Lends Itself to
a Compassionate Representation and Understanding of the Rwandan Genocide

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Art History in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Art History at the Savannah
College of Art and Design

Briana Gervat

Savannah, Georgia

© March 2014

Professor Frederick Gross
Professor Rihab Bagnole
Professor Holly Goldstein
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to my thesis chair Professor
Frederick A. Gross, for your encouragement as well as your patience throughout this
process. Your guidance, knowledge, and expertise provided me with the tools necessary
to complete this thesis. I would also like to thank my committee members Professor
Holly Goldstein and Professor Rihab Bagnole for their suggestions, their support, and
their belief in this project. Without your smiles and your words of wisdom, this process
would have been all the more difficult. I also want to thank all of the professors that I
have had the pleasure of learning from at SCAD; you have all impacted my life more
than you know.
I would especially like to thank Alfredo Jaar for sharing his time with me and providing
insight into his tremendous body of work. A special thanks to his Studio Manager,
Capucine Gros, for not only making the interview possible but also for responding
enthusiastically to all of my inquiries.
A special thanks to my family. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my mother
and father for picking up the phone all of those miles away and listening to all of the
reasons why I was writing about this subject and never giving me a reason as to why I
should not.

I would also like to thank all of my friends who supported me in writing by serving as my
soundboards and for cheering me on when I felt as if I could write no more. At the end I
would like express appreciation to my boyfriend Austin, who provided me with
tremendous moments of laughter and joy during moments of sadness and grief. Thank
you for loving me and seeing me through this.
Table of Contents

Abstract……………….………………………………………………………………… 1

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………....... 2

Chapter One: The Rwanda Project of Alfredo Jaar (1994-2000)
Part One: The Rwandan Genocide……………………………………………… 9
Part Two: The Necessity in Creating a Hybrid Language of Visual and Textual
Poetry in the Rwanda Project…………………………………………………... 16
Part Three: An Explication of the Rwanda Project…………………………….. 20

Chapter Two: With or Without Poetry: A Historiographical Study on the Difficulties of
Representing the Rwandan Genocide in the Rwanda
Project……………………..……………………………………………………………… 44

Conclusion…...…………………………………………………………………………. 61

List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………….62

Illustrations…...………………………………………………………………………….63

Appendix I: Interview with Alfredo Jaar……………………………………………….. 81

Glossary of Poetry Terms ……………………………………………………………….85

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..86
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From Epos to Epic:
How the Visual and Textual Poetry of the Rwanda Project by Alfredo Jaar Lends Itself to
a Compassionate Representation and Understanding of the Rwandan Genocide

Briana Gervat

March 2014

Abstract: In April 1994, genocide began in the central African country of Rwanda
initiated by the Hutu majority against the Tutsi minority. For one hundred days it ravaged
the cities and countryside claiming the lives of almost one million Tutsis and moderate
Hutus. In August, following in its violent wake, artist Alfredo Jaar traveled to this war
torn country, approximately the size of Maryland, to bear witness to the horrific violence
that had taken place. Jaar’s experiences in Rwanda formed the foundation of his Rwanda
Project. Executed between the years of 1994 to 2000, Jaar uses both textual and visual
poetry, in the form of photographs, sculpture, light, darkness, poems written by poets
whom Jaar admires, and even in images Jaar appropriates from magazines and postcards,
to represent the Rwandan Genocide. I show, through my research, that each exercise
found in the Rwanda Project can be regarded as a form epos, an epic poem dedicated to
the Rwandan genocide; where the lines from each poem are an elegy to those that were
lost, the words that accompany the photographs and installations are an ekphrastic
account of catastrophe, each piece of the project a cantos demonstrating the power of
visual and written poetry, and the project in its entirety is a poetic lamentation of the
suffering of humanity. This thesis determines how, due to the ability of poetry to both
inform and provoke, the poetic not only shapes the visual and textual elements of Jaar’s
work but also creates a deeper, more resonant representation of the crimes against
humanity that took place during the Rwandan Genocide.
2

Introduction

In my interview with Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar on February 16, 2014 at the
SCAD Museum of Art, he declared, “Poetry is fundamental for me and it is always a
fundamental element of my work.”1 Though scholars often refer to Jaar’s art as poetic,
none have offered a thorough examination of the poetic elements of his Rwanda Project
(1994-2000). Therefore, this thesis will be an in depth exploration of the connection
between the visual and textual poetry that is present in the Rwanda Project. This poetry is
found in the form of photographs, sculpture, light, darkness, poems written by poets
whom Jaar admires, and even in images Jaar appropriates from magazines and postcards.
This thesis determines how, due to the ability of poetry to both inform and provoke, the
poetic not only shapes the visual and textual elements of Jaar’s work but also creates a
deeper, more resonant representation of the crimes against humanity that took place
during the Rwandan Genocide. Whether he chooses to represent the genocide through
light or darkness, images or text, projections or sculptures, or works that embody all of
these elements, poetry is always a fundamental element of his work. Therefore, my
research argues that each exercise of the Rwanda Project can be regarded as a form epos
structurally diverse, yet thematically united in what can be regarded as an epic poem
dedicated to the Rwandan Genocide. Where the lines of text are at once an elegy and a
dirge to all who were lost. The words that accompany the photographs and installations

1 Interview with Alfredo Jaar. Sunday February 16, 2014 at the SCAD Museum of Art.
For a full transcript of the interview, please see Appendix I on page 82.
3
are an ekphrastic account of catastrophe.2 Each piece of the project is a canto that relies
on the power of visual and written poetry to represent the horrific violence of the
genocide, and the project in its entirety is a poetic lamentation of the suffering of that
took place in Rwanda in 1994.
My thesis must be considered within the context of the social moment of the event
and be sensitive to the inherent difficulties with representing the Rwandan Genocide in a
meaningful, relevant manner without succumbing to the production of stereotypical
images of suffering, which often depict suffering without offering an alternative promise
of hope or escape from that condition. The first chapter is dedicated to Alfredo Jaar’s
Rwanda Project, beginning with the artist’s original response in Rwanda in 1994 and his
continuous reaction to the genocide for the following six years. In order to convey the
horror of what Jaar witnessed and the impending burden of representation, this chapter
includes a discussion on the history of the Rwandan Genocide as well as the Western
World’s failure to respond to the violence. The second chapter is a historiographical
exploration of why Jaar’s use of the poetic is an effective means of communicating the
traumatic impact of the Rwandan Genocide. It also includes a discussion on the
desensitization of the viewer and the effects of visual blindness. Appendix I contains my
February 16, 2014 interview with Jaar at the SCAD Museum of Art that cemented the
argument set forth in this thesis. Each of these chapters demonstrates the necessity of
including visual and textual poetry in the exercises, or cantos, of the Rwanda Project as
well explains why the Rwanda Project can be considered an epic poem.

2 For a definition of poetic terms used in this thesis, please see the Glossary of Poetry
Terms on page 87.
4
In 1994, ethnic violence erupted in Rwanda. Over the course of one hundred days
it spread throughout this East African nation leaving almost one million dead and those
who survived without homes and without families.3 When the violence abated Jaar
traveled to Rwanda in order to bear witness to the genocide, where he made over three
thousand photographs of slaughter and survival. When he returned to the United States,
he embarked upon the Rwanda Project, which is an epic project constructed over six
years that explores the events before, during, and after the genocide. The Rwanda Project
encapsulates twenty-two pieces of art that attempt to represent the genocide through
photographs, sculptures, videos, light installations, and postcards. The images created and
appropriated by Jaar are used in conjunction with poems and text to describe the suffering
of Rwandans at the hands of Rwandans.4 The visual poetry found in the Rwanda Project
is found in images housed in light boxes, replicated over one million times in slides, and
projected onto walls, all of which relay the history of the genocide. When images are
present, they depict only a fragment of the genocide, so as to not make a spectacle of
suffering. In the absence of images, the genocide is represented through words, text,
sound, silence, space, darkness, and light. This oscillation between words and images
does not detract from representations of the genocide, but rather contributes to a more
contemplative and compassionate response from viewers. Whether in the form of images
or text, Jaar considers these pieces poetic exercises in representation with a specific
objective, which attempt to both inform the viewer and also evoke empathy from the

3 Stephen Haug, “Rwanda.” Alfredo Jaar: The Way It Is. An Aesthetic of Resistance,
(Berlin: Realismus Studio, 2012): 305.
4 Ibid. Although the Rwandan Genocide is considered a civil war between the ethnic
groups of Hutu and Tutsis, many Hutus were also murdered for their opposition to the
violence. For a more complete history of the Rwandan Genocide, see Chapter One.
5
viewer.5 In my interview, Jaar expressed his desire to communicate to his audience
through exercises that are both informative and aesthetic. He states: “The ideal work of
art is to inform and to move you to action and to touch you, to illuminate you. Most of
the time I failed, but this is the ideal; to fill you with sadness and joy.”6 This poetic
moment is what the ideal poem, like the ideal work of art is capable of doing; to fill the
viewer or reader with a spectrum of emotions that allow us to comprehend the
complexities and contradictions of human experience.
It is because of the multiplicity of forms exercised in each canto of the Rwanda
Project that enables the entire project to be considered an epic poem based on the events
of the Rwandan Genocide. And like an epic poem, the tragic history of the Rwandan
Genocide is woven throughout the Rwanda Project using the direct and indirect language
of both image and text, where what is seen is also spoken through the poetic language of
metaphor and symbolism. Both within and outside of spaces designated for art, Jaar
confronts media, political, and artistic responses the Rwandan Genocide, where images of
suffering are not displayed for all to view in the form of the graphic photograph. Rather,
Jaar uses the visual, textual, and architectural potential of poetry to transform the wounds
of war into words and ambivalence into social responsiveness. These poetic exercises in
representation in the Rwanda Project are an aesthetic attempt to ease the burden of
suffering Rwandans after the genocide. When viewing the project, viewers are asked to
carry the consequences of inaction and indifference by translating the horrors of the
genocide and challenging viewers to change their perceptions of war, suffering and death.
In the Rwanda Project, text and images combine to create a hybrid language that speaks

5 Interview with Alfredo Jaar.
6Ibid.
6
through both photography and poetry, allowing the suffering that took place over the
course of the genocide to grieve on universal bones.7 The evocation of universal grief in
each epos of the Rwanda Project through the poetic lends itself to a greater understanding
of the Rwandan Genocide and perhaps even allows viewers and victims alike to approach
the experiences of the genocide with the compassion necessary to return the dignity that
was lost over the course of the violence to the people of Rwanda.

7 William Faulkner, “Banquet Speech.” William Faulkner's speech at the Nobel Banquet
at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1950.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-speech.html
(accessed March 10, 2014).
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Chapter I.
The Rwanda Project (1994-2000) of Alfredo Jaar
Part One:
The Rwandan Genocide

On April 6, 1994 Rwandan President Habyarimana was assassinated along with
Burundian President Cyprian Ntayamira on a plane returning from peace agreements in
the neighboring country of Tanzania, where Africa leaders met discuss ways to end the
ethnic violence in Burundi and Rwanda between Hutus and Tutsis.8 Although Hutus and
Tutsis are distinguished from one another by their labors, traditionally, Hutus are farmers
and Tutsis are cow herders. The division between these two ethnic groups was further
perpetuated under Belgian rule, where citizens of Rwanda were issued identity cards that
categorized them either Hutu or Tutsi. It is said that without their identity cards that it is
difficult to tell the difference between the two ethnic groups. For all of their supposed
differences, the Hutus and the Tutsis worked together, prayed together, lived next door to
one another, intermarried and spoke the same language. Yet despite all of their apparent
similarities the genocide is often dismissed as tribal warfare. 9 While there are many
factors that contributed to the unrest between these two ethnic groups, the eruption of

8 Those responsible for the assassination remain unknown. Some say that it was the Hutu
Elite who were unwilling to share their power with the Tutsi minority, while others blame
the current Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, for instigating the genocide. Either way,
the deaths of these men were followed by one million more. Although there is evidence
that the genocide was a premeditated attack on the Tutsi population, it was also spurned
by fear, confusion, and rage in response to the assassination. For a more in depth
discussion of historical events, see Samantha Power, “A Problem from Hell” America
and the Age of Genocide. (Harper Perennial: New York, 2003): 329.
9 Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our
Families: Stories of Rwanda. (London: Picador, 1998): 50. This text provides an in depth
look at the history of Rwanda and the Rwandan Genocide.