Spring Break
Spirit of Survival
Sudanese refugees share their stories
by Andrea Fineman
Managing Editor
Arts | 2/10/09
Posted online at 2:18 AM EST on 2/10/09
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"Painting Faces on War: Spirit and Witness in the Art of Southern Sudanese Refugees" is one in a long line of Brandeis efforts to increase awareness of the genocides occurring in Sudan. The Southern Sudan Cultural Documentation Center, headed by Prof. Mark Auslander (ANTH), works to help Sudanese people document their stories through various forms of performance, including visual art. One of Auslander's Cultural Production masters students named Atem Aleu is continuing the program of Sudanese art at Brandeis. "Painting Faces on War" includes Aleu's paintings, lithography and sculpture as well as works by members of the African Refugee Artists Club, an organization Aleu has worked with since 2005.
Aleu himself has an insight into the experiences of the Sudanese refugees he has met through ARAC. As a member of the Sudanese Dinka tribe, Aleu learned to paint at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, a refugee camp that has served victims of the Southern Sudan genocide since 1992.
The exhibition, which opened on Feb. 2 in conjunction with last week's symposium titled "Hitting Close to Home: Art and Human Rights from Slavery to Guantanamo," is sponsored by the Master of Arts Program in Cultural Production and runs until the end of this month.
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