Past: Special-Exhibition Becoming who you are – studying despite displacement

Education empowers, inspires, and gives hope for a better future!
For refugees who have to build a new life far from home, the chances of accessing higher education are often limited.

Who are those young people who, despite the challenges of displacement, have achieved their dream to study- What are their experiences and what motivates them?

"Education helps you to become who you are," says Richesse. He and his older brother had to flee from Burundi to Rwanda. There, he initially spent every day in the library of the refugee camp where he lived.

For the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), photographer Antoine Tardy has portrayed and spoken with refugee students in many different host countries. The photographs of twenty students are shown in the special exhibition, with the protagonists telling their own stories.

In this exhibition you will get to know interesting personalities and learn about their extraordinary paths to education. Furthermore, you will be invited to reflect on the meaning of education for yourself.

Media and interactive stations also allow visitors to explore the topic of displacement and education in greater depth.

Free admission

A special exhibition by the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in cooperation with UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Exhibition design: BOK + Gärtner GmbH, Münster, Berlin, Cologne

Duration of the special exhibition: 26 April to 13 October 2024

The exhibition ‘Becoming who you are’ won the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2024 in the category ‘Spatial Communication - Exhibition Design’