kigali, rwanda
Over a hundred days in 1994 an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Rwandans were killed in a mass slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutu by members of the Hutu majority. Amounting to 20% of Rwanda’s total population this catastrophic event is still very present in the lives of victims, perpetrators and survivors.
I have spent a great deal of time travelling in Africa and was in neighbouring Kenya at the time of the Rwandan Genocide so this project was incredibly powerful and moving like no other I have ever been involved in. I was invited by the Rwandan government to design a memorial garden around the parliament building and new museum which sits atop one of the defining hills of the capital Kigali. A pair of stone walls wind around the hillside representing the history before during and after the massacre. At first the walls run alongside each other, overlapping and crossing. Then they separate travelling different routes before intertwining to represent the present and future. The centrepiece is a monolithic memorial.
