Click below to see an excerpt from a panel discussion on the recently published book and Spring 2009 Aperture Gallery exhibition, Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape, photographs and interviews by Jonathan Torgovnik. The April 29, 2009 discussion, held at the Aperture Gallery, features Torgovnik explaining how he decided to go beyond his editorial project and started to document Rwandan women who were subjected to massive sexual violence by members of the Hutu militia groups during the 1994 genocide, and who all bore a child as a result. Since these women’s testimonies all emphasized the importance of education, Torgovnik co-founded Foundation Rwanda, which uses photography and video as tools to raise awareness, support the enrichment of the children, and to provide psychological help for the mothers.

You can watch the panel discussion in its entirety, divided in six different parts, on the multimedia section of our website or by clicking on the links below:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, the panelists included the artist Jonathan Torgovnik; Carl Auerbach, Professor of Psychology at Yeshiva University; and Melissa Robinson, Director of Educational Programming of the non-profit organization Kids for Tomorrow. Rwandan women Marie Claudine Mukamabano, a genocide survivor, Rosette Burakari Adera, whose parents were Rwandan refugees, and Yvette Rugasaguhunga, read testimonies of the genocide survivors portrayed in the exhibition and book.

Fifteen years after the genocide, the mothers of these estimated 20,000 children still face enormous challenges, among them, being stigmatized within their communities for bearing a child fathered by a Hutu militiaman and the medical repercussions for those who contracted HIV through the violent attacks.

Torgovnick’s work on this issue was also featured in Aperture magazine, issue 194.

Aperture would like to extend its appreciation for all those who came to the opening reception of Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape from Jonathan Torgovnik. The event was a great success and raised awareness for this important world issue. Check out more photographs from the opening below.

Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape
Exhibition on view:
Friday, February 20–Thursday, May 7, 2009

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY
(212) 505-5555

Click here to listen to photographer Jonathan Torgovnik on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show.

Click here to view a special multimedia feature from Intended Consequences.

A fresh hybrid of magazine and website, FLYP Media creates an interactive web experience by combining text, video, animation and sound. Street Art, Street Life was featured in the January 16 issue, a piece titled Beyond Graffiti by Anna Katarina Gravgaard, based on Aperture book and the exhibition at the Bronx Museum exhibition.

Another incredible FLYP article featuring an Aperture book and exhibition is titled Think War with Jonathan Torgovnik. Torgovnik provides Amy Van Vechten with behind-the-scenes insight to his work Intended Consequences, on view at Aperture Gallery and book soon to be available here. Watch an interview, view images, and listen to Jonathan’s reflections on his mission gathering the powerful and emotional testimonies of these women.

Other FLYP features with Aperture artists include Jonas Bendiksen, Hank Willis Thomas, and Dawoud Bey.

During the 1994 genocide, hundreds of thousands of Rwandan women were subjected to massive sexual violence by members of the infamous Hutu militia groups, known as the Interhamwe. Among the most isolated survivors are women who have borne children as a result of those rapes. The number of children born from these atrocities is estimated around 20,000. Due to the stigma of rape and “having a child of the militia,” the women’s communities and few surviving relatives have largely shunned them. Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape brings together Jonathan Torgovnik’s remarkable portraits of these women and children, and their harrowing first-hand testimonies.

The exhibition on view at Aperture Gallery is comprised of thirty-one stunning individual portraits of these women with their children, accompanied by their testimonies—intensely personal accounts of what they have gone through, the daily challenges they continue to face, and their conflicted feelings about raising a child who is a reminder of horrors endured. The testimonies are presented in text panels and multimedia interviews projected in the center of the installation, produced by MediaStorm. The exhibition also features a video interview with Torgovnik.

Come see this powerful exhibition on view starting tomorrow, Friday, February 20, at Aperture Gallery.

Click here to view a special multimedia feature from Intended Consequences.

Aperture’s accompanying book, Intended Consequences will be published worldwide on April 7, 2009, coinciding with the fifteenth anniversary of the genocide and the opening of a satellite exhibition in the lobby of the United Nations.

Opening reception:
Thursday, March 5, 2009, 6:00–8:00 pm

Exhibition on view:
Friday, February 20–Thursday, May 7, 2009

Panel Discussion with the Artist: Wednesday, April 29, 6:30 p.m.

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
(between 10th and 11th Avenues)
New York, NY
(212) 505-5555

Subway: C, E to 23rd Street and 8th Avenue or 1 to 28th Street and 7th Avenue

FREE

This book and exhibition were done in collaboration with the Open Society Institute, Amnesty International, and Foundation Rwanda.