Imagine.

Reflections on peace

musée international avenue de la paix 17 de la croix-rouge ch-1202 Genève et du croissant-rouge +41 22 748 95 11 2. From 16 September 2020 to 10 January 2021, the International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and the VII Foundation present "Imagine. Reflections on peace", an exhibition of photographs that reflect on peace-building processes and their everyday reality.

What does peace look like, how does it really feel to live it?

VII Foundation

The exhibition, developed in collaboration with the , invites us to imagine an ideal peace that exists outside the headlines. What form – or forms – does peace take in everyday life in places where combatants have laid down arms after years of conflict?

Some of the world’s leading photojournalists set out to explore this question by returning to the places where they carried outDon their McCullin first assignments, sometimesBeirut more than 20 years ago. Nichole Sobecki

• gives us a glimpse of in the grip of civil war, while takes us back to the city’s streetsRoland as Neveuit attempts to heal despite the scars left by conflictPhnom – a journey Penh made all the more relevant byGary recent Knight events.

• witnessed the Khmer Rouge takeover of in 1975. Forty-five years later, ’s photographsRon Haviv show Cambodians still grapplingBosnia-Herzegovina with the conflict’s aftermath.

• coveredGilles thePeress civil warStephen in Ferry and later returned to reportNorthern on the situation Ireland there today. Colombia • Reporting by and sheds light on the peace process in two decades after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and in , where the 2016 peace deal remains little more than a promise. The culmination of an ambitious book project

VII Foundation’ Imagine: Reflections on Peace The idea for this exhibition was sparked by the s ambitious project to stimulate dialogue about peace- building and ending conflict in the world. That project led to the book , which brings together a selection of powerful photographs as well as essays by journalists, photographers, scholars, peace-builders and civilians, each of whom provide a unique and fascinating perspective on the history – or histories – of peace from their respective viewpoints. Each text also offers an apt account of the singular way in which societies and individuals begin to heal after living through acts of extreme brutality.

It was the book’s expansive, rich and multi-layered content that inspired this exhibition. Bringing such compelling ideas to life required a considerable amount of curatorial work, not only in terms of selecting the images but also deciding how they should be displayedSandra in Sunier, the exhibition space. Gary Knight

According to co-curator of the exhibition alongside , difficult choices had to be made when choosing which photographs to include:

“From a broad and wide-ranging corpus of images, we chose those that were most representative of the peace process and its disruptive impact on civilians. The photos are intended to be read in sequence like the chapters in a book, each one shedding light on an aspect that has often been neglected in accounts of the events they portray, with each photo revealing something of their true complexity. The meaning of these images lies not so much in what they show, but in the realities to which they refer. Their apparent banality is all the more damning.”

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 3. How to depict a process as fragile as peace?

Most of the photographs, removed from the searing context in which they were taken, examine stories of success and failure, and how younger generations can learn from the past while working together to build a better future. Whether portraits of victims photographed next to their aggressors or images of emotional reunions, street demonstrations and public memorials, these images – some of which are displayed in dense clusters – tell us about people: what drives them and what has damaged them. Viewed without the sense of the immediacy that is typical of trauma photography, these images invite interpretation. By portraying various facets of war’s aftermath, they reveal surprising links between peace and conflict. Creative exhibition design in the time of COVID-19

Putting together an exhibition during a pandemic is far from easy, and doing so required flexibility, adaptability and inge- nuity. The exhibit design was influenced by the constraints of the current situation as well as the RaphaèleMuseum’s Gygidedication to environmental responsibility, and the result is as powerful as it is imaginative. Exhibits were crafted using 90% recycled materials from our previous exhibition. The design by captures the fragility of reconstruction after a prolonged conflict: recycled picture rails reveal exposed joints, and former partition walls have been repurposed as seating. Only some of the photographs are framed – others simply hang from rails gleaned Pascalfrom older, Hufschmid dismantled displays. Every element was inspired by the unfinished nature of peace-building processes.

, MuseumImagine. Director, Reflections on the on challenges peace of the last few months: VII Foundation “The exhibition was initially set to open in mid-May but was stopped in its tracks by the health crisis. Lockdown measures in Geneva and New York – where the , our partner organization, is based – made the final phase of production extremely challenging. Making and framing the prints, not to mention transatlantic shipping, were suddenly an obstacle. But our partners and the Museum’s staff, drawing inspiration from the stories of courage and resilience at the heart of this exhibition, made a collective decision not to give up. We had to find solutions to a number of unexpected problems: to make up for the framers’ delays owing to the lockdown, for example, we came up with a display system using old picture rails. And so, with a little flexibility, we were able to make the most of an unprecedented situation, and we are very excited to share the results with the public.” A combination of photography, installations and film

The photographs – some displayed in dense clusters – occupy a series of partitions that underscore their message in the centre of the exhibition space. The density of the display reveals the many facets of each story, history and interpretation. These images document the complexity of conflict and an ideal peace that is all too often a far cry from the reality on the ground. Théâtre Spirale Imagine: Reflections on peace Audio installations by resonate with the images and provide a soundtrack to the stories being told. Pas- sages from interviews drawn from the book are narrated by eight actors who give voice to the events depicted on paper. “The Story of Two Wolves”

On the outer walls, a series of quotations from the Native American legend serves to frame the visitors’ experience and guide introspection on the exhibitionVII Foundation content. Elvis Ron Haviv And in a poignant conclusion, twoformer films Yugoslavia produced by the highlight the difficulties encounteredBeyond theon the Swamp road to peace. is the story ofJack one Picone man’s fight for survival. It features Elvis Garibovic, whom photographed in 1992 at Trnopolje camp in the . Twenty-seven years later, the two men meet again. follows war photographer who, in 1994, captured devastating images of the country – images that remained burned in his mind. A generation later, he is surprised by the extraordinary progress made in Rwanda, even as its people struggle with the need to put their feelings aside so that the nation can move forward together.

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 4. Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize Henry Dunant Frédéric Passy The medal commemorating the first-ever is on public display for the first time since 2011 as part of the exhibition. It was awarded in 1901 to , co-founder of the International Red Cross, and , a French politician. Their tireless efforts to bring peace to the world led to theNobel creation Peace of Prizethe League of Nations and then the United Nations. The medal’s inclusion is intended to inspire reflection, not reverence. The is often awarded before the recipient’s actions have stood the test of time. And yet as the photographs in the exhibition show, successful peacebuilding is not a straightforward process – its success lies in its longevity. No symbolic gesture – however beautiful it may be – can fully reflect the complex reality on the ground. Visitors’ voices

We love hearing from our visitors and encouraging them to get involved. The Museum has therefore created two participatory spaces where visitors can express themselves. They will receive a pamphlet at the Museum entrance with questions about the meaning of peace and what it represents for them. They are then invited to share their impressions and reflections on a wall at the end of their visit. Wish Tree Yoko Ono When the Museum reopened on 9 June, we wanted to welcome visitors back with a work that symbolisesImagine. andReflections spreads hope.on Peace.And what better symbol than a magnificent olive tree? by has therefore taken root in the Museum atrium as part of its world tour; the installation is also an apt companion piece to the exhibition VisitorsJohn Lennonare invited to imagine the future and hang their wishes from the tree’s branches. All wishes are sent back to the artist to be stored in her IMAGINE PEACE TOWER, a 2007 installation in Reykjavik, Iceland, created in memory of her late husband, . Behind the photos

In the following section, the photographersImagine: Reflections featured in on the Peace exhibition write aboutVII their Foundation work habits and and Hemeria photography practice and reflect on the events they witnessed and their CHFconsequences. 76.50 All quotes come from the book published by the . The publication is on sale at the Museum shop for

Visuals and Press Kit:

www.redcrossmuseum.ch/en/press/temporary-exhibition

PressAll the contact: information can be consulted here:

Alessia Barbezat [email protected] +41 22 748 95 04 +41 78 901 66 51

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 5. Liban

Don McCullin Then (1976, 1982)

Palestinians flee attack. Close to 1,500 Palestinians died in the Karantina massacre by Christian Falangist gunmen. Beirut, 1976 © Don McCullin/Contact Press Images

“I went running with the first wave. It was evening and raining hard. They all wore hoods. We stopped behind a low wall and watched people being shepherded out of a hospital for the insane. People came to the windows of one wing. One of the Falange fighters shouted and when he didn’t get a proper answer he shot a burst of automatic fire into the window.

There was the same snip-snap of sniper bullets in the morning. Everyone seemed to have shrunk in the center of Karan- tina. An old American truck, like a Dodge pick-up, was brought up with a huge 50mm machine gun mounted on it. The Falangist on top was pouring out fire indiscriminately.

It was more than frightening, it was catastrophically fearful, like the dawn of a new dark age. I photographed, and went on photographing.

I had pictures thatUnreasonable would tell Behaviour the world something of the enormity of the crime that had taken place in Karantina.”

Don McCullin, : The UpdatedReflections Autobiography, on Peace London: Jonathan Cape, 2015, in Imagine: , p. 23

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 6. Liban

Nichole Sobecki Now

Revellers enjoy a 1980s night at B 018 – one of Beirut’s most legendary clubs – built on the site of the Karantina massacre. Beirut, 2017 © Nichole Sobecki/VII

“Lebanon is where I came into being as a journalist. As an intern at The Daily Star — the Arab world’s storied English language rag — I published my first photographs. I even wrote the horoscopes briefly, confounding my friends with the specificity of their fortunes. In 2007 I saw war for the first time, as a battle broke out in the northern Palestinian camp of Nahr alBared. Fighting between the Islamic militant organization Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army began the morning of my 21st birthday. Though violence in Syria and other areas of the Middle East has since overshadowed the destruction of Nahr al-Bared, it was the most severe internal fighting Lebanon had seen since the civil war.

In 2017 I returned to Lebanon with writer Robin Wright to try and make sense of what peace means in a place so defined by conflict. As we met with former fighters and young creatives, I thought back to one of Aesop’s fables, “The Oak and the Reed”, and the countless storms this country has weathered without breaking. Peace here comes in shades of gray. It’s the Imagine:reason to Reflections bend with onthe Peace next wind, to endure, and to embrace the present despite the fire under the ashes.”

, p. 49

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 7. Cambodge

Roland Neveu Then (1973-1979)

A government soldier fires his outdated M1 rifle at the Khmer Rouge from a foxhole. Route 1, Kien Svay District, August 1973 © Roland Neveu

“In 1973, I was a student in sociology in Brittany and was very motivated to experience the ills of our world first-hand. During the summer break, a friend and I dreamed of getting to Cambodia to hone our skills as burgeoning photographers. We managed to fly into Phnom Penh a couple of weeks ahead of the end of the US B-52 bombing of the country.

That for me was a revelation in covering a conflict, a big leap after trailing my camera along the student protests of the early 1970s in France. It also became a jumping off point from university and the entry into a career as a photojournalist. Reporting that war became a passion, and with the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge on April 1975, it altered my life forever.

Witnessing the tragedy of Cambodia over the years has taken me from the disembodiment of the country to the relatively prosperous time it has entered now. Peace has been a very long and tortuous road for the Cambodians, affecting many Imagine:generations Reflections of its people.” on Peace

, p. 68

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 8. Cambodge

Gary Knight Now

“The story of peace – much like the story of war – is personal. Everyone who lives through it has a different experience, and the breadth of those experiences cannot all be expressed within one photo essay.

In creating this work, I revisited places that I came to know during the wars of the 1980s and 1990s, when I started my career in Cambodia. I spoke to men and women of all generations and wrote down what they told me. Some had lived through the civil war of the 1970s and the Khmer Rouge genocide that followed. All had lived through the years of violence and deprivation that was the post- Khmer Rouge period. All had expectations of the peace that followed. For many, the reality of that peace was desperately inadequate.

There are people in Cambodia for whom peace has been a great benefit, such as the family members and associates of the political classes, the military, and the police. But sit on a stool next to a Cambodian vil- Sophary Sophin, bomb disposal engineer, 2017 lager and ask about the peace, and a morethat complex “I give classes about mine education, the danger of the land mine. I try my best. I think some picture emerges. No one would argue that peace has parents understand what I have done, because sometimes in my village, they come to me and say, ‘I really want my daughter to be like you.’ I say, ‘Send her to school.’” been less favorable than war, especially war – © Gary Knight/VII but listen patiently, and the stories of suffering and Imagine:injustice willReflections soon begin on Peace to flow.”

, p. 99

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 9. Colombie

StephenBetween FerryWar and Peace (2016-2019)

“As a child I grew up in the context of the Vietnam War, with violent protests and angry debates all around. My way of trying to understand was to look at photographs published in LIFE magazine and the newspapers. Like many Americans, I was moved by these images to oppose that war, and thus, from an early age, a concern for human rights and a passion for photojournalism came together.

Colombia is a country where the Cold War combined with internal factors to create a human rights disaster, one that implicates all players in the Colombian armed conflict as well as US foreign policy. I documented the Colombian conflict from 1997 to the signing of the Havana peace accords and then, of course, followed the peace process with great interest and hope. It’s too early to know whether Colombia has found its way out of a cycle of brutal internal wars, but certainly the signing of Imagine:the peace Reflections accords is ona big Peace step forward.”

, p. 341 Top: A peace demonstration at the Plaza de Bolívar. The peace agreement seeks to protect gay rights and the rights of other minority groups, Bogotá, 26 September 2016 © Stephen Ferry

Bottom: Former guerilla fighters celebrate the first anniversary of the peace agreement at the reintegration center in Agua Bonita, Caquetá, while a national police officer looks on, 24 August 2017 © Stephen Ferry

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 10. Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ron Haviv Then (1992-1996)

“When I arrived in Yugoslavia in March 1992, I did not anticipate that the moment would mark the beginning of a journey that would last more than 25 years. Tensions were already high, and violence was breaking out in the town of Bijeljina on the Bosnian-Serbian border. The community quickly split along ethnic lines, and the hatred and barbarity that was to become normal during the years of this war began here: the banker fighting against the barber, the school teacher fighting against the grocery clerk. I was witnessing a complete breakdown of civil society.

The violence escalated with the arrival of the former Serbian football hooligan and now warlord Arkan and his paramilitary unit, the Tigers. Within hours of arriving in Bijeljina they accomplished their mission of clearing the town of what they called “Muslim fundamentalists”. What I photographed was the paramilitaries executing unarmed Muslim civilians and taking prisoner a young male civilian, who was later found dead.

Ethnic cleansing was born.

These images, published around the world, were a portent of what was to come. The war lasted for

almost four years, with more than 100,000 people Defaced portrait of the Fako family. Sarajevo, 17 March 1996 killed and nearly two million displaced.” Imagine: Reflections on Peace The Fako family discovered a defaced family photo when they returned to their home. The Serbs who had occupied the house left when the city was reunified by the Muslim-led Bosnian government. They took the family’s furniture and the rest of their belongings from the house , p. 185 and left only this photograph. © Ron Haviv/VII

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 11. Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ron Haviv Now

A display of peace messages at the genocide museum in Sarajevo. War tourism accounts for a large part of the city’s economy, 2017 © Ron Haviv/VII

“What happens when 3.5 million people suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder? What happens when a whole nation – forged from an imposed peace agreement, with opposing sides forced to live together – can’t move beyond the past? Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country that continues to battle itself as it moves in a constant circle.

Memorials litter parks and hilltops. Conversations turn to politics and, at a moment’s notice, back to the war. The political parties remain the same as those that brought the conflict to fruition. There is no agreedupon history of the war taught in schools. Children learn old grievances from their parents, ensuring that for many the war will always be a dividing line. Stories from the 1990s now take their place alongside older tales of war, those from the 14th century to World Wars I and II. Repressed anger and hatred simmer just beneath the surface.

Imagine:The pressing Reflections question: on PeaceHow can we use memory to move past the loss and create one nation for all Bosnians?”

, p. 211

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 12. Rwanda

Jack Picone Then (1994) and now

“In 1994 as Rwanda was in the throes of genocide, I illegally crossed the Ugandan border to document one of recent history’s darkest events. I witnessed a broken country gouged, burnt, scarred and littered with corpses.

Twenty-five years later, I revisited Rwanda and found a very different country – a country that carries the genocide with it in its collective memory but refuses to be defined by it. Instead, Rwandan people have been transformative and accompli- shed the impossible, turning the darkness of the genocide into light. A country once empty is now full: a country once broken is now whole; and scars once obvious are fading. Rwanda’s transformation is squarely rooted in the Rwandan people’s unparalleledReflections ability toon forgive.” Peace

Imagine: , p. 149

Top: Cécile Murumunawabo sits in Parliament, where women predominate with 61% of the seats, 2019 © Jack Picone

Bottom: Victims’ clothes are often preserved as relics, 2019 © Jack Picone

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 13. Northern Ireland

Gilles Peress The Battle for History (1994-2019)

Ireland Days of Peace Derry, Northern Ireland © Gilles Peress/Magnum for Imagine: Reflections on Peace

In 1994, the Irish Republican Army and the Combined Loyalist Military Command declared ceasefires on behalf of the predominant paramilitary organizations in the north of Ireland. Political conversations had dragged on for decades, but the ceasefires kick-started a process that eventually led to the 1998 Good Friday or Belfast Agreement and the cessation of active hostilities. Another 26 years on, no one knows if this cessation will be permanent. There have been similar pauses throughout the 800-year British occupation of Ireland, and even the 1994 ceasefires have proved to be neither lasting nor universal. But something today has unquestionably changed. […]

If you travel through the border today, you see nothing. You see gorgeous landscapes and boring ones. You see a lot of rain and some sun. The only differentiations are the texture of the road paving and the speed limit signs, which show kilometers in the south and miles in the north.

Since before the British conquest, pilgrims have followed these roads to Lough Derg in County Donegal, now just across the border. They circle barefoot across its sharp stones, fasting and praying for release, faithful that, through their suffering, one day they’Il find eternal peace. Imagine: Reflections on Peace Chris Klatell with Gilles Peress, in , p. 272 and p. 275

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 14. Biographies

Don McCullin (*1935)

Sir Don McCullin is well established in the canon of photography; his work covers all the major late 20th-century conflicts. His lens shows life from the perspective of the disenfranchised and the dispossessed, the civilian casualties of war and the victims of social injustice. McCullin has won multiple awards and was the first photojournalist ever to be awarded a CBE.

Photo: Roger LeMoyne

Nichole Sobecki (*1986)

Nichole Sobecki is a photographer based in Nairobi, Kenya. As a member of the VII Photo Agency, she aims to create photographs and films that demand consideration for the lives of those represented – their joys, their challenges, and, ultimately, their humanity.

Photo: Zelalem Mulat Teklewold

Roland Neveu (*1950)

Roland Neveu is a French photographer who in 1975 photographed the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge. In much of his work in the following two decades he covered conflict. In the 1980s he photographed the stills for Oliver Stone’s feature film Platoon. Since then he has done still photography with major Hollywood directors. He now lives in Bangkok. Photo: Maëva Neveu

Gary Knight (*1964)

Gary Knight is a photographer and the principal architect of the VII Photo Agency. He is the co-founder and director of the VII Foundation and the president and founder of the VII Academy in Arles, France, and Sarajevo, Bosnia. He began his career photographing in Southeast Asia in the 1980s.

Photo: Alizé de Maoult

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Imagine. Reflections on peace 15. Stephen Ferry (*1960)

Stephen Ferry is a photographer and author who immerses himself in long-term projects. His work has been published in The New York Times, National Geographic, GEO, and Time. His book Violentology: A Manual of the Colombian Conflict is the product of 10 years of docu- mentation of the armed conflict in Colombia. Photo: Romana Vysatova

Ron Haviv (*1965)

Ron Haviv produced some of his most notable work during the Bosnian conflict, where he documented ethnic cleansing. His pictures were later used as evidence in the war crimes trials at The Hague. He has won multiple awards and his work has appeared in many major publications. Haviv is a co-founder of the VII Photo Agency and the VII Foundation.

Photo: Adrian Whipple

Jack Picone (*1958)

Jack Picone is an Australian documentary photographer, author, and academic. He is a three-time winner of a Picture of the Year International award; his other honors include a UNESCO Humanity Photo award. He was one of only a handful of photographers to document the Rwandan genocide as it was taking place.

Photo: Patrick Brown

Gilles Peress (*1946)

Gilles Peress is the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fel- lowship, the Dr. Erich Salomon Prize, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been exhibited by and is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Getty, and the Centre Pompidou, among others.

Photo: Jackie Escolar

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Imagine. Reflections on peace