Description
Recent scholarship has illustrated the transformative power of artistic expression and musical performance in transitional justice settings, noting the ability of artistic endeavours to contest hegemonic narratives and foster cultural and structural transformation (Martín de Almagro et al. 2024). While these and other studies have highlighted the tendency of formal transitional justice mechanisms to ignore intersectional dimensions of oppression, including gender-related dimensions, and focus on finding a unitary truth, recent innovations in transitional justice institutional design have begun to create spaces for the inclusion of artistic projects and performances that deconstruct this idea of a singular truth. In contrast to early truth commissions, which tended to produce lengthy reports focused on providing ‘objective’ accounts of the conflict, the Colombian Truth Commission engaged with alternative narratives and diverse accounts through media such as song, visual art, graffiti, theatre, public performance, and film. Although alternative spaces outside of the formal transitional justice realm are critical components of transforming patterns of oppression, inclusion of artistic initiatives in formal transitional justice mechanisms is also crucial to counteract the continued exclusion of historically marginalised groups such as women and members of the LGBTQI+ community and to provide official recognition of their identities and narratives. Through a case study of the Colombian transitional justice system with a focus on the Truth Commission, this paper illustrates the potential of formal transitional justice mechanisms to contribute to a plural understanding of truth and the deconstruction of hegemonies through the perpetuation of diverse and often conflicting narratives of conflict. Instead of focusing on an extractive collection of narratives, moreover, the study illustrates the ways in which participation in formal mechanisms can offer new channels of communication and avenues for renegotiating relational interactions.
