The Gazette (Montreal)
April 16, 2005 Saturday
Final Edition

Marking the pain of human history: Lousnak, a Lebanese-born singer,
artist and actress, has conceived a multidisciplinary event that
commemorates genocide both past and present. ‘It’s happening as we
speak – in Darfur, in Chechnya. We can react now.’

by BERNARD PERUSSE, The Gazette

In 1939, Adolf Hitler chillingly dismissed the extermination of 1.5
million Armenians by asking who remembered them – but the Nazi leader
couldn’t have predicted that the world wouldn’t forget either him or
the Armenians any time soon. Lousnak, a Lebanese-born singer, artist
and actress, makes a yearly point of doing something to keep
awareness of the Armenian genocide alive.

“Before television existed, people used the excuse that it was
history. Now we know these things are happening, and we still don’t
do anything. It’s happening as we speak – in Darfur, in Chechnya. We
can react now – and we must do something,” the Montreal-based
performer said.

This year, Lousnak is giving her annual memorial concert in the
context of a larger project: the first annual Parlons Genocides, a
multidisciplinary event that begins Monday and runs until April 30.
It commemorates genocides throughout history and around the world.
Her show will take place on April 24, considered the 90th anniversary
of the Armenian genocide carried out by the Turkish government, and
her guests will include Jerome Miniere, Fredric Gary Comeau and
Patrick Watson. “The idea is to express the pain of genocide through
song, with the hope that art can reach more people than, let’s say,
politics,” she said.

Other shows also will be themed around different nationalities.
Monday’s opening concert, which is scheduled to include performances
by Zal, Sister Soul and DobaCaracol, focuses on Rwanda and Sudan.
Syncop, Montreal’s premier purveyors of Algerian rai music crossed
with almost anything you can think of, share the bill with rap trio
Loco Locass on Tuesday’s Palestine-themed evening. Guitar ensemble
Forestare will pay tribute to aboriginal people and Tziganes on
Friday, with a guest list that includes Florent Vollant, Alain Auger
of the eclectic duo Taima and Paul Kunigis. The Juan Jose Carranza
Trio and Alejandro Venegas are among the artists turning the light on
South America next Saturday, the night before Lousnak ends the
concert series.

Films will also be screened at the National Film Board during Parlons
Genocides, and most showings are scheduled to conclude with a
discussion period featuring a special guest. Among the works to be
presented are Shake Hands With the Devil (Monday), Atom Egoyan’s
Ararat (April 24), Ce qu’il reste de nous, the French version of What
Remains of Us, a moving look at contemporary Tibet by Francois
Prevost and Hugo Latulippe (April 25) and Hagop Goudsouzian’s Mon
fils sera Armenien (April 29).

A photo exhibit reflecting images of Chad, Darfur and Congo will run
starting Monday at the Cafe de l’Usine. Another photo exhibit, Les
Enfants de la Guerre, begins April 24 and can be seen at the National
Film Board.

A round-table discussion on the meaning of genocide in our age closes
the event. Among the scheduled participants are Lousnak, Patrick
Robitaille of Doctors Without Borders and Laurie Gordon, daughter of
the main Canadian witness at the trail of Adolf Eichmann.

Lousnak said the blueprint for Parlons Genocides was in part inspired
by sculptor Alberto Giacometti. “He wrote that the more he sculpted a
figure of his brother Diego, the more he saw all men in him. And the
more I worked on projects involving the Armenian genocide every year,
the more I saw all the pain in the world through it. It was only
logical that I turn it into an event commemorating the world’s
genocides,” she explained.

Parlons Genocides begins Monday and runs until April 30. For concert
prices and other information, call the Lion d’Or at (514) 598-0709.
Information on the South American night, however, is available from
the Kola Note at (514) 274-9339. All other events are free of charge.
For further information, go to online.

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