Luxembourg: the visual narratives of “Simply Survivors”

In Luxembourg City, “Simply Survivors” presents images and words chosen by the participants. It is distinct from the fiction film “Touchées”, screened at Utopia, and can be explored through the events announced for November.

In Luxembourg City, an exhibition on the railings of Place de Strasbourg is due to open on 12 November, RTL reports. It brings together images and words produced by the survivors themselves. The exhibition “Simply Survivors”, organised by the association Stand Speak Rise Up!, is part of a series of events devoted to sexual violence in wartime and its consequences. Its format poses a practical question: who decides how a story is told?

The screening of “Touchées” at Cinéma Utopia on 11 November opens this programme. Alexandra Lamy’s film, adapted from Quentin Zuttion’s graphic novel, addresses violence against women and recovery. The exhibition takes a different path: it does not stage a work of fiction, but presents a documentary project based on images made by the participants. The two offerings share a theme, but do not tell the same experience.

From subject represented to image chosen

For “Simply Survivors”, disposable cameras were given to people who had survived conflict-related sexual violence, as well as to children born of wartime rape. The association’s presentation explains that the participants create their own images and accompany them with words of their choosing. Chékéba Hachemi is its curator.

This format changes the role of the outside observer. In a conventional report, the photographer frames, selects and captions the images. Here, the project states that the people concerned take part in creating the images and deciding how to present themselves. The public is therefore not simply presented with a subject about violence: it encounters visual narratives created by those affected by that violence.

This difference matters, without needing to turn the exhibition into a promise of healing. An image chosen by its maker can make visible a daily life or an identity that the outside gaze sometimes reduces to an experience of violence. The project gives space to choices about representation, without reducing a life to a single event.

The project involves people from several countries, including Luxembourg, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Iraq, Uganda, Syria and Ukraine. This diversity is a reminder that the exhibition is not a portrait of a single local group. Its presentation in Luxembourg brings stories linked to different contexts into view here, without suggesting that all the participants are residents of the country.

Two forms, two ways of approaching recovery

“Touchées” is a work of fiction adapted from a graphic novel. According to RTL’s report, it is Alexandra Lamy’s first film as a director. The actress explained that reading Quentin Zuttion’s work had made her want to make it her first film. The screening at Utopia was organised at the invitation of Grand Duchess Maria Teresa’s team, which is involved in the work of Stand Speak Rise Up!.

The fiction film and the exhibition are not interchangeable. A film constructs characters and a narrative; a documentary exhibition presents images stemming from a project led by people directly affected. They are brought together by the shared theme of recovery, while the exhibition explicitly places its stories in the context of conflict-related violence.

Stand Speak Rise Up! presents these events as a way of raising public awareness of sexual violence and its consequences, particularly for children born of rape in wartime. The association links this programme to screenings, exhibitions and a legal journal. This range of formats makes it possible to approach the same subject from several angles: fictional narrative, photographic expression and discussion of legal frameworks.

Where to see the exhibition and which events to attend

From 12 November, “Simply Survivors” is due to be displayed on the railings of Place de Strasbourg in Luxembourg City. An opening reception is scheduled for Monday 16 November at 18:30 at the Luxembourg Learning Centre in Belval, in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg. According to the announcement carried by Chronicle.lu, admission is free, but registration is required. The University of Luxembourg registration form confirms the date and offers the opportunity to register. Conditions and availability should be checked with the organiser.

Another event is announced for Wednesday 25 November at the Luxembourg Palace of Justice: the launch of the second issue of the journal “Stand Speak Rise Up!”. These dates extend the November programme through to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

For visitors, the point is not to look for a complete illustration of a conflict or an experience in every photograph. Rather, it is to consider how an initiative gives the people concerned a role in creating their own narratives, and then to distinguish what the exhibition shows from what it cannot tell on its own. This attention leaves the images in their proper place: singular expressions, chosen and presented within a collective framework.