“Every day of the year marks the anniversary of someone’s death as a result of conflict in Northern Ireland”.
This is how contemporary artist Gwen Stevenson begins her daily video which shows her crossing the border between north and south.
Based in Belfast, Stevenson decided to mark the anniversaries of all deaths, fatal injuries or disappearances during the Troubles by creating a durational performance piece entitled Northern Ireland Conflict: Memorial/UnMemorial.
She dedicated a full year, from February 14 2023 to February 14 2024, to crossing the border every day whilst reciting the names of those who lost their lives on that particular date.
She then posted a one-minute video reel to her social media channel, documenting the process which has become a ritual of remembrance not just for her but her ever-growing group of followers, including family and friends of those lost.
“I moved to Northern Ireland nearly 20 years ago,” she says.
“At that time, I didn’t want to assume the right to comment on the Troubles because it wasn’t my lived experience.
“I didn’t want to add anything that would offend people, so it’s taken me the last 20 years to get to the stage where I needed to bear witness to what happened and to honour the legacy of the people who have been lost and the continued suffering of the families left behind.”
Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement which many regard as marking the end of the Troubles. It was during this period that Stevenson felt compelled to finally comment on the situation.
“There’s so much discussion about moving on and looking forward,” she explains.
“But personally, I thought that the suffering of the victims and the injured hadn’t been honoured.
“So, I felt the need to memorialise that loss in some way.”
When she originally moved to Northern Ireland, Stevenson was keen to develop a genuine understanding of people’s experiences during the Troubles.
This led to her working on a wide range of arts and creativity projects allowing her to engage with people from different cultures and backgrounds.
“I didn’t feel like I understood it. So I got involved in socially engaged art as way of trying to understand the lived experience of people who had lived here during the conflict.
“I worked in divided communities, peace building projects, arts and health - all projects that were using art to create dialogue between people.
“I believe in the healing power of art, I believe that we’re all creative, but we don’t all have the opportunity to be.”
By focusing on the loss of life the work aims to promote dialogue and healing within Northern Ireland as well as provide a deeper understanding of the ongoing legacy of the Troubles.
“When I first moved to Northern Ireland, I joined the Healing Through Remembering programme which was a course about storytelling and positive dialogue.
“One of the quotes that they came up with was ‘Every day of the year marks the anniversary of somebody’s death as a result of the conflict in Northern Ireland’ and that’s stuck with me.
“Because to me, what that meant was that there is no day in the year that can be set aside to memorialise and remember the Troubles because there’s no day that it isn’t somebody’s anniversary.”
Lost Lives was a monumental book written by journalists Seamus Kelters (BBC), David McKittrick (The Independent), Brian Feeney (The Irish News) and Chris Thornton (BBC NI), with David McVea, detailing the lives of those who died during the conflict. It states that 3,720 people were killed between 1966 and 1999.
“I knew I needed to understand the enormity of the loss and 3,720 people takes time to comprehend,” explains Stevenson.
“The border is of symbolic and historical significance and represents division, so I decided that crossing it would be a very poignant thing to do.
“It also highlights the notion that if you look at what this conflict was about, it was about borders and about territory.
“These people were lost because of this border and here I am now crossing it every day and look at how normal it is and how everyday life is going on.
“It almost represents the achievement of being able to evolve and normalise the space but also paradoxically pointing out that people fought and lost their lives over this and now look – the border isn’t even marked.
“There’s no checkpoint there’s no nothing, you wouldn’t even know you were crossing the border but yet we fought a war over it.”
Despite dealing with difficult subject matter Stevenson explains that she found the process of creating the piece cathartic.
“Because I live in Aughnacloy where there’s a huge, troubled history, I’m passing places where I know atrocities happened every day, so I suppose as an artist I’m sensitive to that.
“So in some ways it’s getting it out of my system as well by manifesting it into a piece of art work and sharing it.
“Hopefully other people will be able to relate to it, reflect on it and contribute to the narrative around memorialisation.”
A five-hour film that captures the essence of the footage Stevenson captured during the 12 months is now on show in Belfast Exposed.
The gallery is hosting a curated reflective space that offers visitors the opportunity to engage with the film at their own pace or select a date that is significant to them.
“Half of the people that were killed were in their 20s and 30s and 90 per cent of those who were killed were men. This was a young man’s war,” Stevenson explains.
“What I’m really trying to do is humanise these statistics and bring that home to people.”
