Unknown Numbers
Taking the museum out of the museum
Eight portraits. One thing in common: people who made huge sacrifices for free speech. A German journalist imprisoned by the Nazis. A Kurdish journalist imprisoned in Iran. A young poet from Bahrain. A human rights lawyer from Mexico. An opposition politician from Rwanda. But how many others we know nothing about? Unknown Numbers.
It started as a building fence, to hide the construction site behind the Nobel Peace Center. The new National Museum is slowly taking shape, but it won’t open before 2020. In the meantime, why not turn the building fence into an arena for contemporary art?
After addressing the Mediterranean refugee crisis and showing Mare Nostrum for about a year, the Peace Wall was given a new topic: free speech.
Unknown Numbers was created in 8 weeks, by Shwan Dler Qaradaki and Johannes Høie. They painted directly onto the wall using it as one big sketchbook. The result is heart-rending. Every day, up to 80,000 people walk past the artwork. Little by little, these portraits become familiar faces. By using the fence as an exhibition space, we reach out to a larger audience, and lower the threshold while addressing an important topic. If people can’t make it into the museum to visit the exhibitions, the wall is there to inspire them still. Eight incredibly courageous people, and a daily reminder to not take our freedom of expression for granted.
“Please use your liberty to promote ours.” — Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize 1991.
Digna Ochoa Y Placido
Digna Ochoa was one of the most prominent Mexican human rights defenders. She was repeatedly threatened, kidnapped and tortured, but never gave in on her principled opposition to institutionalised abuse. Her career involved representation of dissidents and, in some cases, raised allegations of human rights abuses, including torture by government authorities, particularly the army. She was found murdered in her office in October 2001.
Carl von Ossietzky
Ossietzky has been largely forgotten, but his story lives on. As a German journalist and fearless pacifist, he was convicted for treason, after revealing Germany’s remilitarization in the late 1920s. Ossietzky continued to be a constant warning voice against militarism and Nazism, and when the Nazis came to power, he was arrested again and sent to the Sonnenburg concentration camp. In 1936, he became the first political dissident to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It was a controversial, but courageous decision. Carl von Ossietzky died in 1938, before the outbreak of World War II.
Tahir Elçi
As a giant in Turkey’s human rights movement, Tahir Elçi was shot in the head, in November 2005. He was giving a press statement by the Sheikh Matar Mosque and calling for an end to violence. This Pro-Kurdish lawyer defended the rights of those detained, tortured and forcibly disappeared, when it was almost impossible to do so. He risked his own life in the process. He was also one of the founding members of Amnesty International in Turkey.
Ayat Al-Qurmezi
Across the Arab world, poetry is a powerful and popular form of expression. During the Arab Spring, a 20-year-old student recited critical poems of the government, during gatherings in Manama’s Pearl Square. One verse, addressed to Bahrain’s King, included the lines: “We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery. Don’t you hear their cries? Don’t you hear their screams?” The next day, she was arrested and subsequently expelled from university, and convicted of anti-state charges. Even though she was released from prison in July 2011, Ayat can be recalled to prison at any time, as her sentence has not been revoked.
There is also Raif Badawi, a Saudi writer who was sentenced to 10 years in prison, 1000 lashes, and a fine for discussing religion online. Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, a politician currently imprisoned for contesting the results of the 2010 election in Rwanda. Adnan Hassanpour, an Iranian journalist, recently released after spending 8 years in prison; and, finally, the artist’s own brother: Kamal Raul, who was arrested and tortured after participating in a demonstration against the Iraqi regime.
Unknown Numbers: eight inspiring stories.
