Alfredo Jaar ,"We Wish To Inform You That We Didn't Know",

Sitting on the floor and watching the video installation telling stories of a tragedy I’d barely known about made me feel initially small. This was a type of art I’d never really come across before, sort of like a documentary. It made me question whether it was even art, whether the suffering of people documented could be considered to be art. Can art be anything we simply name to be art?

I agree that the video was powerful, and it was obvious by the quiet and people’s still, silent faces during the pause between the end and start of the replay that it touched them as well as touching me.

It made me feel guilty for not knowing much about what had happened in Rwanda, it made me feel small for not being able to do anything about it, and once again it brought up questions in my mind about our current government, whether they are actually able to live up to any promises they have made.

The video made me think about human life and how many people there are on the planet, how many people there are in the world that I will never know.

Often when I am walking down the street I realise how little I know of the world, how many strangers I see makes me realise that the world is bigger than my small family, somehow I wish I could know every one of the strangers I see, but I’m still in my own little bubble like everyone else.

I found the use of 3 screens really interesting, how he paused and repeated scenes on each screen to really let what was being said sink in. I also like where the video installation was placed and how dark it was in the room, it felt like almost a rustic environment when we were all jammed in. I think the music he used towards the end was just perfect and really helped to set a scene for the type of environment it was at the time in Rwanda, and how sad it was and still is to the people involved.

I think Alfredo Jaar’s video accomplishes the task of making us more aware of what happened, obviously the artist was interested and touched in what happened to go and look for answers regarding the tragedy, which I admire.