Description
The existing literature that pertains to the ‘spatial turn’ in peace research has primarily highlighted the materiality and visuality of the spaces in which peace takes place. However, its sonic dimensions are under-acknowledged, with existing accounts largely referring to the visual characteristics of space. This paper attends to this gap by investigating how a sonic approach to peace helps conceptualise transformative spatial politics. Emphasising spatial continuities which challenge binaries of the past and present, we examine the ways that the sonic qualities of post-war spaces give insight into the nature, quality, and experience of peace in an otherwise divided urban context. Drawing on a sound story from a larger sound archive established as part of our research project on “The art of peace”, we therefore analyse the ways in which ‘peace’ plays out sonically in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The investigation of the space of the Partisan’s Cemetery through the sound archive, a guided walk and interview data trace the fictional spatial transformation of a divided city. Emphasising the spatiality of memory and placemaking, our micro-site of analysis challenges us to engage with sonic dis/continuities of war and peace. We posit that the curated soundscape of Mostar disrupts visual representations of space as divided and presents alternative spatial imaginations, inspired by fragments of the past, present and future.
