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In April 2004 in Gisozi , a suburb of Kigali,
capital of Rwanda, the nation’s Genocide Memorial Centre
was opened by Rwanda’s President. The Gisozi Centre commemorates
the more than one-million Rwandans, mostly Tutsis, murdered during
the hundred-day genocide in 1994.
The opening ceremony was attended by nine heads of state from
Africa and Europe. The Genocide Memorial Centre was designed and
made by Aegistrust, a UK organisation dedicated to genocide prevention.
Aegistrust was supported by the Swedish, British and Belgian governments
and by The Clinton Foundation.
Ardyn Halter was commissioned to
create to two stained-glass windows. He was assisted in the making
of the windows by Roman Halter and Aviva Halter.
Ardyn Halter flew out to Rwanda in March 2004 to install the window
and attend the opening ceremony.
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The
first window, Descent To Genocide concerns
the period leading up to the genocide when there was no effort
to intervene or to prevent what was about to occur, despite
the clear warnings by General Romeo DeLarr chief of the United
Nations force on the ground.
The window shows a staircase and all the movement in semi-abstracted
swirling forms of machetes leads down towards deep, brooding
colours and skulls at the base.
The dead are not shown as Tutsis or Hutus but only as broken
skulls. The staircase is blocked near the top. The sky also
pulls down in vertical lines.
The window is dark and sobering.
(See enlargement of
stained glass)
Size of window 3.0 metres x 2.7 metres; 9'8" x 8'8" |
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The
second window, The Way Forward is positioned
between the section “During the Genocide” and the
section of the Centre “After the Genocide”. It too
has its own separate space.
In this window the steps are free and open. The skulls at the
base are not to one side, but centrally positioned at the bottom
of the steps and two swirling forms flank those steps. The steps
clearly lead up towards a sky that is wide and light and promises
a better future.
The sky and prospect of hope can only be attained when the eye
has recognised the skulls (the nation’s common dead) and
moved from there up the steps towards the future.
(See enlargement of
stained glass)
Size of window 3.0 metres x 2.7 metres; 9'8" x 8'8"
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