PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN TO EXHIBIT KOSOVO: 1999-2000,
PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAOLO PELLEGRIN

OCTOBER 3rd - NOVEMBER 21st, 2001

(New York, NY - August 8, 2001) - Parsons School of Design, a division of New School University, will be exhibiting Kosovo: 1999-2000, photography by Italian photographer Paolo Pellegrin from October 3rd - November 21st at the Parsons Exhibition Gallery at 2 West 13th Street, NYC. For further information, call 212-229-8987. The exhibit is part of a larger festival, Focus on Italy, 2001, the biennial festival celebrating the work of Italian photographers who have achieved international reputations, but are not yet known in the U.S.

The Kosovo: 1999-2000 photo project is a revealing and compassionate four-part series of photographs documenting the 1999 mass exodus of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. More than 850,000 refugees, primarily women and children, were forced by the Serbs to leave their homes in Kosovo for the northern regions of Albania at a few hours notice. Other images include the return of the refugees to the ruins of Kosovo, the reconstruction of Kosovo, mass grave sites, as well as enlarged pictures from drivers' licenses and passports of missing and killed Kosovar Albanians. The images confront the grief and suffering during the largest flight of refugees since the Second World War.

"In Kosovo, I photographed the wounds and the losses. I saw the scars. But waiting for the healing that never came, I recognized the power of memory," says Pellegrin. "By documenting crimes, I discovered that they could be a source of both unbearable solitude and intense solidarity. Small acts of endurance and resistance were a constant lesson. I came to understand the enthusiastic courage sustaining a collective dream: to gain freedom from oppression and create a new nation."

In early 1998, large-scale fighting broke out in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo, resulting in the displacement of thousands of people. A cease-fire was agreed in October 1998 that enabled refugees to find shelter, averting an impending humanitarian crisis over the winter. However, violence continued and the situation worsened significantly in January 1999. Yugoslav military, paramilitary and police forces mounted a systematic campaign of murder, persecution and mass deportation of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. Through his photographs, Paolo Pellegrin poignantly captures the extreme inhumanity of war while revealing the humanity of its victims.

Paolo Pellegrin's photographs have garnered many awards, including two first prizes from World Press Photo (1995 and 2000), and the Leica Medal of Excellence (2001). His book Children was published in 1997, and Cambodia (a collaboration with Medecins sans Frontieres) in 1998. Since 1996, he has been working on a major project documenting the HIV/AIDS pandemic in developing countries.

Parsons Exhibitions demonstrate the School's commitment to excellence and innovation in art and design; two galleries, open to the public, are scheduled year-round with exhibitions by Parsons School of Design’s faculty and students and outside artists and designers.

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Parsons School of Design is one of the largest degree-granting colleges of art and design in the nation. Currently enrolled are 2,400 undergraduate students, 380 graduate students, and 2,500 non-degree students from all 50 of the United States and from 60 countries. Parsons' main campuses are in New York City's Greenwich Village and Midtown Manhattan. In addition, Parsons has affiliate schools in France, Japan, South Korea and the Dominican Republic. Undergraduate degrees are offered in Architectural Design, Communication Design, Design and Management, Fashion Design, Fine Arts, Illustration, Integrated Design Curriculum, Interior Design, Photography, Product Design. Graduate degrees are granted in Architecture, Design and Technology, Lighting Design, Painting, Sculpture, and the History of Decorative Arts. For more information on Parsons, call 212- 229-8910 or go to the Web site at www.parsons.edu

New School University, with 7,000 matriculated students and 25,000 continuing education students, is comprised of seven academic divisions: The New School, the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, Parsons School of Design, Eugene Lang College, Mannes College of Music, the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and the Actors Studio Drama School, as well as the University's B.F.A. in Jazz and Contemporary Music. New School Online University offers one of the largest selections of online courses in the nation. For further information about admission to New School University, call 877-528-3321 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu.