In 1994, from April to July, eight hundred thousand Rwandans were slaughtered by ethnic Hutu extremists. The Rwandan genocide was exceptional in its brutality, in its speed, and in the meticulous organization with which Hutus set out to destroy the Tutsi minority.
Between 1996 and 1997 I documented the aftermath of this genocide on behalf of the UN Refugee Agency. I stopped practicing international law in 2004 and moved to New York City to pursue a career as an artist. “This is Rwanda” is an ongoing art project that examines a response to the genocide that exceeds the rationality of official state- and multilateral organizations. At the time of writing, “This is Rwanda” consists of video, sculpture, sound, and performance.
Low production re-enactment of the 1994 Bronco chase in which O.J. Simpson led police in a low speed chase on a Los Angeles freeway. Filmed from the back of a moto-taxi in Kigali, Rwanda.
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Between 1996 and 1997 I documented the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide on behalf of the UN in Burundi and DRCongo. I stopped practicing international law in 2004 and moved to NYC to pursue a career as an artist.
I made my visual arts debut with ‘This is Rwanda’, a short experimental video in which I embedded footage of the genocide into the interface of a computer game. The film had its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
‘This is Rwanda’ evolved into an ongoing project that examines a response to the genocide that exceeds the rationality of official state- and multilateral organizations. At the time of writing, ‘This is Rwanda’ consists of video, sculpture, sound, and performance.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversaries of respectively the genocide in Rwanda and the O.J. Simpson case, I was artist-in-residence at Ivuka Arts in Kigali in the spring of 2019. Through video and installation, I explored the Relativity of Simultaneity: the concept that distant simultaneity – whether two spatially separated events occur at the same time – is not absolute, but depends on the observer’s reference frame.
Inspired by Rwanda’s £30 million deal to sponsor U.K.’s Arsenal football club: the team’s kit now bears the ‘Visit Rwanda’ logo on its left sleeve.
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Between 1996 and 1997 I documented the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide on behalf of the UN in Burundi and DRCongo. I stopped practicing international law in 2004 and moved to NYC to pursue a career as an artist.
I made my visual arts debut with ‘This is Rwanda’, a short experimental video in which I embedded footage of the genocide into the interface of a computer game. The film had its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
‘This is Rwanda’ evolved into an ongoing project that examines a response to the genocide that exceeds the rationality of official state- and multilateral organizations. At the time of writing, ‘This is Rwanda’ consists of video, sculpture, sound, and performance.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversaries of respectively the genocide in Rwanda and the O.J. Simpson case, I was artist-in-residence at Ivuka Arts in Kigali in the spring of 2019. Through video and installation, I explored the Relativity of Simultaneity: the concept that distant simultaneity – whether two spatially separated events occur at the same time – is not absolute, but depends on the observer’s reference frame.
During my time in Rwanda in 2019, I made a series of personalized soccer shirts that represent a rudimentary timeline of Rwanda’s recent history.
The T-shirt project is inspired by the recent Rwanda Development Board £30 million deal to sponsor U.K.’s Arsenal Football Club: the team’s kit for the 2018/19 season now bears the ‘Visit Rwanda’ logo on its left sleeve.
2008
Black Noise – a vinyl record is covered in black licorice mice. As the needle bumps along over their backs, it generates a rhythmic pounding, reminiscent of tribal drumming and machine guns.
During the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda, the extremist radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines used terms such as ‘swarming’ and ‘infestation’ to motivate Hutu killers. Accompanied by a lively mix of entertainment and pop music, death tallies were read out like sports scores.
Black Noise is the technical term for silence.
Plaine au Mille Souris: steel and rubber, 30 × 40 inches – 80 × 100 cm, 2009
Plaine au Mille Souris (This is not Rwanda) rejects Malthusian theories stating that the 1994 Rwanda genocide was the preordained result of the impersonal forces of poverty and overpopulation. The mice that overpopulate the picture plane are cast from the licorice candy that is distinct to Belgium and acknowledges Europe’s disastrous influence in African affairs.
In 1798 Thomas Malthus declared that “If there are too many people and not enough food, then, certainly, there are going to be problems […] as nature has a natural way to cut population levels: crime, disease, war, and vice”.
The following is an extract from a report by Human Rights Watch about the genocide in Rwanda:
“The sweetly sickening odor of decomposing bodies hung over many parts of Rwanda in 1994 […] at least half a million people perished […] this genocide was not an uncontrollable outburst of rage by a people consumed by ‘ancient tribal hatreds.’ Nor was it the preordained result of the impersonal forces of poverty and over-population […] This genocide resulted from the deliberate choice of a modern elite to foster hatred and fear to keep itself in power.”