Memento Mori is a Latin phrase that evokes both the natural passage through
life to death and the act of remembering the mortality of each of us. In
Memento Mori, eight artists offer personal reflections on the genocides
of Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, and Bosnian Muslims during the last century.
The art works form a kind of sensory testimonial, triggering historical
memory and a collective awareness of our losses and limitations.
When Hitler began his genocidal campaign he was confident that the rest
of the world would not stop him. His words ãwho remembers the Armenians?ä
correctly projected that the Third Reich could undertake limitless carnage
against the Jewish people, and the world would not stop it.
ãNever again,ä was the refrain that captured peoplesâ sense of individual
responsibility in the aftermath of the Holocaust. But, as genocide happened
again and again throughout the 20th century, it became clear that ãnever
againä meant ãnever again would Germans kill Jews in Europe in the 1940s.ä1
Genocide continued throughout the world, including Cambodia, Rwanda, and
Bosnia.
LIPA was originally created in 1997 in Washington D.C. with the ãArtists
for Peaceä program, which sought to bring greater public attention to
the tragic war in former Yugoslavia, and since then has presented scores
of exhibitions, lectures and performances.
This exhibit has been partially funded by Illinois Arts Council
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