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ENEMIES -- My search for light in terrible conflicts: Nelson Guda at TEDxSanAntonio 2013

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I am an artist and photographer. In 2011 I began a project to try and understand how people move back into a place of light from extreme tragedy and conflict. I called the project "ENEMIES" and began traveling to conflict zones around the world. I have already done work in Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, India and Kashmir. In the beginning I brought people together from opposite sides of conflicts, listened to their stories and photographed them together in the same space. Later I met with ex-militants and visited mass graves.

This isn't an academic study or a humanitarian effort. I am an artist, and the art from this project is meant to move people and make them think. I see these acts of bringing people together and trying to understand resilience as a form of art in its highest sense of expression of the human experience.

After returning from Kashmir in 2012 I spent six months coming to grips with mild PTSD, and I found my own resilience being born out of the stories I had heard from the places of deepest tragedy. The ENEMIES Project is not about conflict. It is about light.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
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