Lectures and Screenings
Aesthetics of Atrocity: A Public Program
Exhibitions, Films, Lectures
February 3-March 18, 2012
all events are free and open to the public
please use the 31 Prince Street entrance
From February 3 through March 18, 2012, Visual Studies Workshop will present a public program on the Aesthetics of Atrocity. Humans are frequently exposed to images of pain and suffering such as photographs that document wars or natural disasters like the earthquake in Haiti or the tsunamai in Japan. Throughout five presentations we will investigate the human need to respond to atrocities through representation. In 2011, Afterimage: the Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, a publication of VSW, featured a special issue that inspired the series. The program brings together national and international journalists, a panel of scholars and an artist from universities in Western, New York, and a family of refugees now based in the Rochester area that survived the atrocities of a tribal massacre in Gatumba, Burundi, Africa in 2004. The full schedule and descriptions of events are below. This series is free and open to the public thanks in part to grant support from the New York Council for the Humanities.
“Survivors” exhibition opening February 3, 6-9 pm, VSW’s Bookstore and Gallery
“Survivors” is an exhibit in which Rochester-based refugees tell their story of survival of the 2004 Gatumba massacre in Congo. The exhibit features numerous audio and written testimonies, a documentary video, and portraits of survivors by first-time photographers and Banyamulengue youth survivors Sandra Uwiringiy'imana and Alex Ngabo. The "Survivors" exhibition has been supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts Visual Arts Program.
Restrepo video (93 minutes), February 8, 7 pm, VSW’s Auditorium
Restrepo, directed by Sebastian Junger and the late Tim Hetherington, a photojournalist who was recently killed while covering the conflict in Libya, is an award-winning feature-length documentary of U.S. soldiers in the Korengal Valley, Kunar Province Afghanistan.
Larry Towell, slideshow with live music, February 22, 7 pm, VSW’s Auditorium
A folk music performance and photography slideshow by renowned Magnum photographer Larry Towell who has recently returned from photographing in Afghanistan and has published monographs on the Gaza Strip and the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.
Philip Kennicot, keynote presentation, February 29, 7 pm, VSW’s Auditorium
Philip Kennicot, Culture Critic of the Washington Post, will present the lecture “Codes of Exposure: Imaging the Body and Suffering in Haiti.”
Aesthetics of Atrocity, panel lecture, March 7, 7 pm, VSW’s Auditorium
A panel on images of atrocity and trauma featuring Janet Borgerson, Saunders College of Business, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT); Jessica Lieberman, Dept. of Fine Arts, RIT; Jonathan Schroeder, Dept. of Communications, RIT; Jason Middleton, English Dept., University of Rochester; Millie Chen, artist, Dept. of Visual Studies, University at Buffalo.
Looking for an Icon, video (55 minutes), March 14, 7 pm, VSW’s Auditorium
A documentary directed by Hans Pool and Maaik Krijgsman about four World Press Photo contest winners, a 1968 image of a South Vietnamese general executing a Vietcong, a 1973 image of the soon to be assassinated President Salvador Allende of Chile, the 1989 snapshot of a Chinese protestor blocking tanks in Tiananmen Square, and a 1991 Gulf War photograph of a U.S. soldier weeping.
For more information call (585) 442-8676 or email info@vsw.org
Visual Studies Workshop, 31 Prince Street, Rochester, NY 14607
from "Survivors," portraits by first-time photographers and Banyamulengue youth survivors Sandra Uwiringiy'imana and Alex Ngabo