the Holocaust in an apparently playful way, using genocide as a fact produced in the present, as is its
the family album and its representation as a vehicle representation. This large-scale project comprising
for observers to connect with the subjects in the more than twenty artworks is remarkable for
portraits in the same way as they do with their own offering different standpoints on what happened
family images. Meanwhile, the photographs serve during the Rwandan genocide, while also questioning
as a tribute to each relative, portraying them as the capacity of photojournalism and its distribution
individualised and irreplaceable people, while also and exhibition mechanisms as an effective tool for
transforming them into just one of the millions mobilising the population in the face of an atrocity
of families who suffered a similar fate and whose of this magnitude. In this respect, not only does Jaar
legacy endures today through their descendants. expose the weaknesses of the medium but, through
Moreover, the work directly portrays survival against his artworks, he proposes other potential strategies
all odds, symbolised through the artist’s face and the for generating visibility, reflection, reaction and
play on words in the title of the project. emotional response through art. He manages to
As a counterpoint to the abovementioned
represent the genocide and its aftermath without
works, it is worth highlighting, albeit briefly, The directly showing the literal nature of the brutality,
Rwanda Project (1994–2000) by the artist Alfredo violence or death, without exploiting the victims, yet
Jaar, about the genocide in the country. In contrast reflecting the complexity of an event of this scale.
to the other artworks, Jaar’s work presents the As the artist himself states, «If the media and their
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