Debating, Performing & Curating Symbolic Reparations and Transformative Gender Justice in post conflict Societies. (HN)

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There is a global momentum to address sexual violence in conflict, as well as an emphasis on women in peacebuilding. UN resolutions and guidelines such as SCR 1325 urge governments and peacemakers to include women in peace and reconstruction processes and address gendered harms, and transitional justice and reparation programmes are now expected to include a gender perspective. Within these processes, there is increasing attention for commemoration and the arts as tools for reconciliation and symbolic reparation. However, both in global governance as in transitional justice processes, there is a tendency to reduce gendered harms to sexual violence, and gender to women. This prevents a more transformative gendered perspective on repair, justice, and social change. Hence, we believe that there is an urgent need for a more complex and feminist understanding of the gendered nature of conflict and post-conflict symbolic reparation as well as transformative gender justice. This project rests on the following assumptions, drawn from research carried out by the applicants:The specific manifestations of wartime violence and atrocity tend to take place along lines of existing inequalities and injustices, and gender based violence, especially rape, is a tool to forge and reproduce such inequalities. This is not only a wartime strategy, but precedes it and continues afterwards. The current high-profile attention for sexual violence in policy and law have not done much to mitigate or end sexual violence in conflict or in peace.Symbolic reparation, or arts as critical intervention, can potentially question and unsettled known hierarchies. This might be a tool for transformative gender justice. Art may unsettle and question ongoing legacies of colonialism and persistent inequalities that have not been acknowledged or addressed;Constructions and performances of masculinities that have not been interrogated, particularly in previously colonised societies, can and should be questioned in innovative cultural ways. Aims and objectivesDebate, compare and analyse existing projects of commemorating periods of violence in a range of post-conflict countries, particularly South Africa and Peru;Raise questions regarding the relation between national commemoration, symbolic reparation, and transformative gender justice; Examine and discuss existing performances of symbolic reparations in relation to conflict related gendered harms in South Africa, Peru and beyond.Identify, debate and compare counter-narratives for gender justice;Examine the tension between preserving "heritage" and addressing abusive pasts in curating memory;Consolidate a global and interdisciplinary network of scholars, artists and curators interested in feminist perspectives on commemorative arts and symbolic reparation.The project aims to achieve above-mentioned objectives by organising three events plus an interactive web-presence, or Virtual Community, that will record the activities, and invite further reflection and intervention. Event 1 will be a two-day academic workshop held in London to debate feminist perspectives on commemoration, symbolic reparation, and the arts. The workshop will invite international scholars to reflect on different country case studies. Event 2, held in Cape Town, will be an interactive two-day workshop/three day visit involving artists, activists, and civil society organisations to reflect and demonstrate how art and performance can contribute to symbolic reparation and transformative gender justice in post-conflict settings. Event 3 involves a South-South exchange between Peru, Colombia and South Africa, where curators involved in national commemoration projects are invited to Lima to discuss sensitivities and opportunities when curating national histories of violence. The impact is expected to be high and cross disciplinary.