Digital Memorial Preserves Genocide Victims’ Names

Austrian artists Bele Marx and Gilles Mussard, working with Rwandan genocide survivor Ancilla Umubyeyi and Aegis Trust, launched a digital initiative at Kigali Genocide Memorial on Thursday, May 14. The project, called When the Pillars Bear Grief, creates a “virtual name pillar” to display the names of victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Currently, the platform holds 1,000 verified names, with a long-term goal of documenting over one million.

Visitors access the memorial through a QR code that uses augmented reality to project a digital artwork when a phone is pointed at the ground. Umubyeyi conceived of the project after observing Holocaust remembrance projects in Austria and wanting to ensure victims were remembered as individuals, not statistics. The team initially sought to create a physical stone memorial but adapted the idea into a digital format due to city approval challenges.

The initiative aims to counter genocide denial by presenting verified names from recognized archives. While the platform currently focuses on names, developers plan to add more personal details in the next five years, alongside pillars dedicated to genocide history, resilience, and rescuers. The project remains under development and will eventually become publicly accessible.