In this event we will combine the perspective of witnesses, artists and researchers to show the ways in which personal narratives of mass violence are recorded and shared in this medium. The project Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives, initiated in Canada, investigates how visual narratives can help amplify the voices of survivors of genocidal and other mass violence.

How can they work in dialogue with graphic novel artists to interpret and record their experiences? How can we share these narratives in meaningful ways? Amongst others, the project includes a Syrian war refugee who escaped physical violence. During this event a witness, an artist and researchers explore in what ways graphic novels can capture stories of violence and genocide. As a creative interpretation, graphic novels do not claim to provide a direct or all-encompassing record of events, yet they visualize their later impact. 

This international project builds on a prior collaboration between witnesses, researchers and graphic novelists that focused on narrative art, visual storytelling and education around Holocaust and human rights. From this, two graphic novels recently emerged: But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Emmie Arbel. The Color of Memory.