In 2018, artist Natacha Nisic attended the appeal trial in France of two individuals responsible for the genocide of the Tutsi, Tito Barahira and Octavien Ngenzi, in the commune of Kabarondo, Rwanda. She drew and took notes during the sessions, capturing the exchanges, atmospheres, postures, behaviors, tensions, and emotions, and conveys this to us, without claiming to be exhaustive or objective, in an operational incompleteness. As we look through these written images, we are in turn struck by them. This trial is crucial because of the issues it raises in terms of history, justice, and memory.
Historian Hélène Dumas, who was also present at the trial and testified as an expert witness, provides us with insights into the issues at stake in the trial. Outside the courtroom, her own notes and sources from the recordings trace a different path. The notebooks, as if they had remained in the courtroom, keep the memory alive in their hearts and minds. The continuous writing contained in these notebooks forms a work of art.
Part artist’s book, part scientific work, this book offers a sensitive and aesthetic interpretation and a historical approach to the trial. It is also a powerful historical document: it is a book about genocide, about a genocide trial, but it also reflects on genocide trials in general. Through the artist’s selection, her subjectivity, and Hélène Dumas’s historical commitment, this book touches our sensibilities and makes us question ourselves: we have the keys to understanding this genocide, which is part of the global history of the French nation and the world.
