Transitional justice by Artists

OPENING EVENING, TUESDAY, MAY 27
KANAL-K1

The AFIELD forum opens with an evening at K1, beginning with a conversation to frame the connection between transitional justice – its principles, history, aspirations and application – and the important place of art and culture within those mechanisms and processes. How do artistic and cultural practices intersect with legal frameworks, truth commissions, and education, to reshape narratives and preserve memory in the aftermath of violence?

Artist Jesse Krimes and music producer Steve Happi shed light on issues of mass incarceration, its relationship to poverty, and the need to reimagine criminal legal systems away from punishment towards rehabilitation. They are both, through the work of their initiatives: Center for Arts and Advocacy (US), and Jail Time Records (Cameroon), actively creating opportunities for formerly incarcerated artists, and reshaping the often over-simplified narrative around prisons.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 28
KANAL-K1 & BEURSSCHOUWBURG

Artist and academic Alejandra Ballon Gutierrez will share methodologies from visual arts and anthropology that she uses in the healing processes to accompany indigenous women victims of state-forced sterilization (between 1990 and 2000), and survivors of the recent anti-democratic political corruption, in Peru.

Call for Proposals: In the first week of April, AFIELD will make a call from individuals and organisations with diverse experiences and disciplines of knowledge, to contribute to the AFIELD Forum by designing and running a two-hour workshop related to the topic of transitional justice by artists. By opening up the forum to sessions led by audience members and locally based initiatives, we hope to create a more porous and co-creative platform.

Participants will be led out the door and onto the streets to situate themselves in our host city of Brussels. Going beyond a typical tour, these walks reframe our understanding of the city and its history, connecting with broader discourses of colonialism, migration and social justice. Visiting local communities to discover place-based practices, the groups will witness how creative expression plays a crucial role in orchestrating and enacting solutions, to address trauma and foster reconciliation for diverse communities.

THURSDAY, MAY 29
KANAL-K1 & BEURSSCHOUWBURG

Visual artist Pio Abad will guide us through how memory and evidence play a role in his artistic practice when considering corruption and the colonial past of the Philippines; how archives in museums situate specific histories within broader contexts; how exhibitions are sites of interrogation; the importance of storytelling between the forensic and the poetic; and the need to rebuild rather than destroy these institutions.

Call for Proposals: In the first week of April, AFIELD will make a call from individuals and organisations with diverse experiences and disciplines of knowledge, to contribute to the AFIELD Forum by designing and running a two-hour workshop related to the topic of transitional justice by artists. By opening up the forum to sessions led by audience members and locally based initiatives, we hope to create a more porous and co-creative platform.

How do artistic and investigative practices contribute to uncovering historical truths and shaping collective memory? Filmmakers and researchers Manuel Correa and Hannah Meszaros Martin have worked with Forensic Architecture and the Colombian Truth Commission, using 3D modeling, audio analysis, and data mining to examine the country’s armed conflict. Their work demonstrates how film and forensic research can help rewrite the past and expose hidden narratives, challenge official accounts, and contribute to the mechanisms of transitional justice.

What is the role of film in truth-telling; in fostering collective memory and healing? How does visual storytelling challenge dominant narratives and deeply define the human psyche, the imaginary, the past and the future? These are some of the questions confronted through the lens of seeking justice, in a collectively curated screening program with films from speakers as well as members of the AFIELD Network from Lebanon, Palestine, Peru, Rojava, Spain, and Ukraine.

FRIDAY, MAY 30
KANAL-K1 & BEURSSCHOUWBURG

Towards reparations and policy change, the work of artists has forged particularly critical and relevant tools for seeking and addressing justice. Researchers, lawyers, policy-makers and cultural workers are invited to join a discussion on how artists and creatives working with institutions have been able to impact communities, implement change, and develop pilot programs that are replicable in other contexts to contribute to healing for societies and individuals harmed by atrocities.

Lawyer, poet and educator Joseph Kaifala will lead a workshop sharing his experience with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Sierra Leone, and the importance of symbolic reparations for a nation and its people.