Torture on the parade ground
Human Rights Amnesty International wants to partner with the Walker Agency to bring the issue of torture up close for discussion.
Human rights Amnesty International wants to join forces with the Walker agency to bring the issue of torture up close for discussion.Torture is a focus topic for Amnesty International this year. It's a tough one - but a simple message. We know from TV news and newspaper reports that horrific torture is happening around the world. The images with victims and scenes of abuse are "familiar" to us. But what do we do about it? What happens seven flying hours away is not able to grab us up close. "We therefore simply leave out seven hours of flying time and show the world in which we then find ourselves," says Pius Walker, explaining the concept behind his new campaign for Amnesty International (Switzerland). The idea was visually dramatized with real photos of tortured people. However, these are not shown in their surroundings, but are graphically cut out and re-placed in Swiss realities such as shopping streets, SBB train stations, idyllic waterfront promenades or busy squares. In such places as Paradeplatz in Zurich or in front of a friendly old town, Walker photographed a poster site. A torture victim was then copied into this photograph - and the new montage was rehung against its old background. The result of this visual trick was posters in which one can see "as if through the surface" to an otherwise hidden world. Two realities were thus connected. A hanged man on a tree in Africa suddenly hangs on a billboard in front of a tree - for example, on the waterfront in Geneva. "It's not happening here - but now," is the evocative message.
Walker designed 70 unique posters for this provocative campaign. APG showed a great deal of commitment in finding suitable poster sites. The photos with torture scenes were researched with a lot of goodwill from the - unfortunately - endless pool of Keystone.
Technically, the procedure was to photograph a billboard site at early dawn in the most neutral weather conditions possible. Then the torture victim was mounted on the computer and the brightness was adjusted until the advertisers were satisfied with their impression of "transparent".
The posters will be present for a month starting in week 22. The motifs at the individual locations will change, which should give the campaign additional attention. Bullet holes, child soldiers, people in shackles, people hanging upside down: the campaign deliberately provokes a discussion in the media. To this end, the mechanisms of PR are also brought into play. "We have a limited media budget, so we have to get into the media by other means," Walker explains. For all their commitment to the serious cause, however, the campaign's designers made it a top priority to ensure that the helpless tortured people in this sociopolitical "art action" never appear degrading in the picture. In order to remain politically correct and neutral, torture scenes from all camps of the current crisis areas have been selected.
Amnesty International (Switzerland) has a collection budget of 11 million Swiss francs per year. About one third of this is delivered to the worldwide umbrella organization. The current cross-national campaigns are a "Control Arm" campaign and a campaign to raise awareness about violence against women. The Swiss section is free to decide on national issues, as Daniel Meienberger, head of communications at AI's Swiss section, explains. For its education on torture, the concept is: "Publicizing is the core of action."
Andreas Panzeri
Walker designed 70 unique posters for this provocative campaign. APG showed a great deal of commitment in finding suitable poster sites. The photos with torture scenes were researched with a lot of goodwill from the - unfortunately - endless pool of Keystone.
Technically, the procedure was to photograph a billboard site at early dawn in the most neutral weather conditions possible. Then the torture victim was mounted on the computer and the brightness was adjusted until the advertisers were satisfied with their impression of "transparent".
The posters will be present for a month starting in week 22. The motifs at the individual locations will change, which should give the campaign additional attention. Bullet holes, child soldiers, people in shackles, people hanging upside down: the campaign deliberately provokes a discussion in the media. To this end, the mechanisms of PR are also brought into play. "We have a limited media budget, so we have to get into the media by other means," Walker explains. For all their commitment to the serious cause, however, the campaign's designers made it a top priority to ensure that the helpless tortured people in this sociopolitical "art action" never appear degrading in the picture. In order to remain politically correct and neutral, torture scenes from all camps of the current crisis areas have been selected.
Amnesty International (Switzerland) has a collection budget of 11 million Swiss francs per year. About one third of this is delivered to the worldwide umbrella organization. The current cross-national campaigns are a "Control Arm" campaign and a campaign to raise awareness about violence against women. The Swiss section is free to decide on national issues, as Daniel Meienberger, head of communications at AI's Swiss section, explains. For its education on torture, the concept is: "Publicizing is the core of action."
Andreas Panzeri
