An Installation for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, created by Diane Misaljevic, Allan Kosmajac, and Julie Stewart

With the support of the Canadian Centre For International Justice


Fragments & Sightings documents the plight of refugees and survivors of war and mass human rights abuses who currently live in Canada.

In order to continue to give survivors of conflict a voice, it is of great importance that memories are preserved.  This artwork gives survivors back an identity rather than reducing them to one amongst thousands. This project is also a valuable tool for educating the public on human rights abuses.

‘Fragments & Sightings,’ documents the experience of survivors through the collection of over 400 artifacts and stories that bear witness to the tragedies they experienced.  The Fragments website contains some of the survivors stories and photos of personal artifacts such precious family photos, children’s clothing, and jewellery.  The prior innocence of these objects from everyday life takes on a deeper meaning when read in the context of how that innocence was destroyed in the process of abuse.

The installation was composed of rows of over 500 boxes functioning as repositories for precious object artifacts lent by the community, who suffered violence, loss and displacement.  The object artifacts lack
clear signs of identification, yet as personal reliquaries and objects of remembrance, they evoke from their owners a powerful sense of intimacy and separation.



FRAGMENTS: STORIES OF SURVIVAL

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