Anatomy of Forgiveness - 2014
Justice has been served. 20 years after the genocide in Rwanda, perpetrators and their victims once again live side by side. I wanted to give them a platform, to tell they story and not impose any of my preconceived notions onto them. As an artist I surrendered my subjectivity to the subject.
I asked the survivor and perpetrator how the moment of forgiveness looked like, and if they were comfortable with recreating it for me. I tried to be as careful anwd gentle as possible and sometime I had to wince when asking. The survivor and perpetrator side by side, embracing, shaking hands, touching cheek with cheek, drinking banana beer.
Falling to their knees. After each captured moment I shook their hands
and looked in their eyes. I never shook hands with murderes before. On makeshift scales I ask the survivors to show me how much they forgave and the perpetrators how much did they forgive themselves.
I photograph the proximity of their houses. I can’t believe that in some cases death was separated by only 68 steps.
But forgiveness in this context is not a fluffy pink cloud. We are used to the Hollywood image of it. Decorated with pan-am smiles and happy endings. In Rwanda forgiveness is a necessity that allows people to move on with their lives. It is exactly the lack of smiles that teaches us the many faces of forgiveness.