What Works? Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

ABSTRACT∞ Scholars and practitioners of transitional justice have begun to seek alternative approaches in the arts and culture as a means to pursue core goals of peace and reconciliation. This Special Issue asks what creative approaches can do that conventional transitional justice mechanisms cannot, and invites us to reflect on the possibilities, and the potential challenges, risks and constraints. In response, this article discusses two arts-based initiatives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one involving a national museum, the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one with a Bosnian peacebuilding organization, the Post Conflict Research Centre, that provided opportunities for plural, dialogical and localized forms of transitional justice. Analyzing the question of what worked in these two distinct initiatives, we highlight four common qualities and offer them as non-prescriptive ‘good-practice principles’ in strategic arts-based peacebuilding practice: iterative working over time; carving space for plural, locally driven narratives; amplifying the capacities and networks of local actors; and context-driven project design.

Hybrid Peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Participatory Arts and Youth Activism as Vehicles of Social Change

“…The seeds for IZAZOV grew out of conversations between the researchers and Bosnian youth activists in BiH between 2017-9, 10 and the long term experience of Opera Circus and Humanity and Action in working with Bosnian youth. These dialogues reaffirmed the sense of young Bosnian's strong cynicism and malaise regarding international peacebuilding (particularly projects focused on questions of "reconciliation") and a difficulty in politically mobilising youth due to what remains a conservative and coercive political environment (Fairey, 2018(Fairey, , 2019Fairey & Kerr, 2020). In research interviews, youth activists highlighted that their difficulty in forming national networks was exacerbated by a lack of available resources to travel and meet each other, and specifically identified that film and social media would be useful in helping overcome these problems.…”

“…This was, however, only possible due to everyone's long term investment in the project. This is time and resource intensive work, and it should be noted that a considerable amount of free labour was required to run this project (Fairey & Kerr, 2020). Adequate financing and time is crucial to making these projects effective and sustainable.…”

Fostering a Democratic Culture: Lessons for the Eastern Neighbourhood

“…Research on Polish media assistance in Belarus and Ukraine finds that media interventions can contribute to the emergence of new media outlets that can facilitate democratic debate (Galus, 2020). The presence of alternative options (outside of mainstream media) provided by various digital spaces has created opportunities for people to express their opinions on important issues; engage in active citizenship; and foster a more diverse, inclusive society (Peruško, 2021;Fairey & Kerr, 2020;Trifonova-Price, 2019). In Bulgaria, for example, Facebook was used widely during the 2013/2014 social protests to express discontent with the social and political system; and to convey information and exchange ideas.…”

“…Research on Polish media assistance in Belarus and Ukraine finds that media interventions can contribute to the emergence of new media outlets and new media frameworks, which can facilitate democratic debate (Galus, 2020). The presence of alternative options provided by various digital spaces and initiativesincluding new online platforms and forms of social media has improved access to news content and information, creating opportunities for people to express their opinions on important issues; to engage in active citizenship; and to foster a more diverse, inclusive society (Fairey & Kerr, 2020;Trifonova-Price, 2019;Howell, 2015). Recent research finds, however, that compared to other European audiences, CEE and South European audiences demonstrate less active online participative practices of blogging, posting comments, and joining groups in social networks; rather, news consumption of traditional media in online settings and social media practices tend to dominate (Peruško, 2021).…”

“Living Statues” and Nonuments as “Performative Monument Events” in Post-Socialist South-Eastern Europe

“…In this sense, I use Jacques Rancière’s conceptualization of the “pensive image,” that is, an image in suspense, in-between (2008), and – to borrow from Svetlana Boym’s theorization of “reflective nostalgia” – ambivalent, dwelling on longing and touching perhaps even on the ironic and humorous (Boym 2001). Through the critical, political “aesthetic encounters” (Garnsey 2019, 22) they produce, contemporary artists recall how “art has a transformative potential because it pays attention to details that remain unseen and uses empathy which enables a ‘shared emotional response that can bring people together’” (Fairey and Kerr 2020, 149). Contemporary post-socialist art employs defamiliarization “to convey new perspectives on the past and ultimately to intervene on what and how is remembered in the present” (Kalo 2017, 52); and because artists had a limited socialist experience the concept of post-memory of Marianne Hirsch (2008) can explain how they were influenced by the different discourses on the socialist past to which they were subjected (Kalo 2017, 54).…”