The Memorial For Those Who Did Not Fall In War
Contemporary art exhibition and international symposium presented at Columbia Global Paris Center (Reid Hall), bringing together artists, writers, and theorists to examine how war shapes societies far beyond the battlefield. Through exhibitions, talks, and performances, the project questions the meanings of peace, responsibility, and global conflict in the twenty-first century. Feb, 2026.
Organized by Columbia Global Paris Center and Columbia University Global Center for Peace Innovation, in collaboration with THALIM CNRS, Columbia Department of French, and Institut pour la Paix.
The Memorial For Those Who Did Not Fall In War (MNW), reimagines the emblem of war’s suffering, the memorial, for a world in which “peace” no longer shields anyone from the harms and responsibilities of military violence. Nations that see themselves as peaceful continue to participate in the global arms trade and in military interventions that fuel wars and genocides. As a result, even those who have never set foot in a conflict zone are shaped by war’s psychological, ecological, and political consequences, whether distant or historical.
Refusing to remain unwilling partners and silent sufferers of this destruction, MNW gathers collaborators from across the globe, from the world's leading contemporary artists and theorists to writers, performers, and filmmakers, around a shared conviction: as long as we are all harmed by war and participate in the systems that sustain conflict, none of us can truly be at peace. From this position, the MNW invites audiences to question their most basic assumptions about how peace and war are perceived, experienced, and imagined, and to develop new cultural, visual, and intellectual languages through which to understand what it means to live 'at peace' and 'at war' in the twenty-first century.
The Paris launch will unfold across three interconnected dimensions: a contemporary art exhibition, an international symposium, and a public cultural program of performances, readings, and screenings. Together, these formats form the foundation of MNW’s long-term model, in which research, artistic practice, and public pedagogy are inseparable.
This inaugural event marks the beginning of the Memorial’s ongoing journey across regions and continents. Conceived as a drifting, evolving institution rather than a fixed monument, MNW will continue to travel globally to each region of the world, engaging local histories, conflicts, and forms of memory, while building conversations across frontiers on responsibility, peace, and ecological justice.
At a time when war is increasingly normalized as distant, inevitable, or abstract, The Memorial for Those Who Did Not Fall in War insists on a different ethical and cultural stance: that peace cannot be understood as the absence of direct violence, and that responsibility does not stop at national borders.
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Board
Hadas Zahavi (Director), Alexandre Gefen, Sarga Moussa, Sarah Cole, Marianne Hirsch, Bruno Bosteels, Madeleine Dobie, Nina Berman, Joerg M. Schaefer, David C. Johnston, Thomas W. Dodman.
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Artists
Hito Steyerl (Germany), Kapwani Kiwanga (Canada/France), Julieta Aranda (Mexico/Germany), Majd Abdel Hamid (Palestine/Syria), Lesia Khomenko (Ukraine), Louis-Cyprien Rials (Iraq/France), Nina Berman (USA), Lorie Novak (USA), Yann Toma (France), Paola Yacoub (Lebanon/France), Vera Kox (Luxembourg/Germany), Meltem Yildiz (Bakur Kurdistan), Ablaye Birahim Diop (Senegal/France), Baptist Coelho (India/France), Warren Neidich (USA), Syd Krochmalny (Argentina), Detext (Spain), Manuela Morgaine (France).
Thinkers
Georges Didi-Huberman, Françoise Vergès, Leïla Sebbar, Yahia Belaskri, Sarga Moussa, Luba Jurgenson, Thomas Hippler, Barbara Polla, Alexandre Gefen, Stéphane Gerson, Philippe Mesnard, Catherine Brun, Dalia Abu Sbitan.
Acknowledge
The organizers wish to express their sincere gratitude to NYU Maison Française, Columbia University Society of Senior Scholars, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Cloud Seven, Eric Mouchet Gallery, The Slip, Seize Avril, Galerie Poggi, Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg, Maison du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, Marfa Projects, Ceysson & Bénétière, L’Endroit, Les Films du Bal, as well as to the individuals Lindsey Michelle Schram, Scott Milan, Marie-Laure Desjardins, Betti-Sue Hertz, Robert Snyder, Scott M Krupa, Mickaël Faure, Frédéric de Goldschmidt, Patrice Joly, Eric Mouchet et Corinne Diserens, for their generous support and collaboration.