If your museum wants to tell a story about a current or past war, you are faced with a choice. Do you use people's testimonies to tell the story or do you wait until the time is right to establish the ‘official’ story of what happened?
Olha Mukha, curator The Territory of Terror Memorial Museum in Lviv, Ukraine, and Sanda Koçevar, historian and curator Karlovac City Museum in Karlovac, Croatia, know the challenges involved in documenting a war from within. During this ICOM Talk, they talked about the complexity of human memory and the dangers of collecting stories live in the midst of war, to dealing with different political views when designing an exhibition.
Documenting war is not just about recording history, it is about giving a voice to those whose stories might otherwise remain untold. Each personal narrative adds a unique stroke to the canvas of human experience, enriching our understanding of the past and inspiring hope for the future. Each personal story adds a living face to the statistics, a human being with his or her pains, hopes and feelings. It is our responsibility to ensure that they do not go #unheard. - Olha Muhka
Revisit this Talk