A picture is worth a thousand words is what they normally say. These days I’ve been coming to reflect on this sentence a lot and it has made me realize that it is very true. Across various countries, territories, islands, etc. there are millions of languages spoken. Each language has its own structure, some with their own scripts, and some with different styles of speaking. However, across this large variety, we still find words lacking to express certain emotions, to tell certain tales accurately or to even convey ideas well. The gift of the gab is what they say you have when you can play with the words in a language well, but you still find yourself limited by language and start to define everything and construct reality with the known language.
In peacebuilding activities, a substantial amount of what we deal with has to do with language and communication. Mediations, facilitations, negotiations, dialogues, all need knowledge of a common language traditionally, and it is in this field specifically where it is extremely crucial to convey as accurate as possible certain ideas and emotions, especially when dealing with story-telling and trauma healing. How then can we convey these ideas without having language constraint us?
This is where I feel the place of arts steps in in peacebuilding. A picture, a painting, a poem, a video, helps build an ambience around an idea that supports the words that come along with it. Now, when looking at most conflicts, they all have a sorrowful past buried at its roots. A big part of the conflict not being able to be transformed or resolved is that the past has not been resolved or even addressed, leaving it an open wound to be agitated time and time over again. In order to make peace with the past and finally start moving forward people need their stories to be heard and acknowledged. Helping reach a shared narrative of the conflict from a past lens and then putting it down in memory through either a statue or sculpture or painting or any other art form is also where I see the arts playing a huge role, that then paves the way to justice.
Some of my favorite examples are:
This (to the left) was made to remember the young Japanese girls who were attacked by the Japanese soldiers during WW2. The heels off the ground resemble instability in their life because society never accepted the, the empty chair allows you to empathize with her putting yourself in her shows, the shadow makes her look like an old woman when in fact she is very young. These are among the few intricate details of the statue that help form a better idea of the whole picture. This statue is located in many places, the most controversial one being right outside the Japanese embassy as a reminder to all of those girls and the terrible fate they suffered.
This is another example to show the way Iraqis and Iranians were able to converse with each other breaking down any misconceptions or animosities they had towards each other during the prolonged war between the two nations.
This is an image of Titus Kaphar giving a TedTalk about the history of African Americans and how through paintings their stories can either be hidden or brought to life, and in the process educating everyone.
As you can see from few of these examples, the arts really play a vital role in peace-building. To conclude, I must emphasis on the role of creativity in this field. With the complex and dynamic situations we encounter in this field, one must know for sure, that creativity is something if employed can only benefit the situation if not have no effect, and the various forms of art are the best tools to channel and vehicle such creativity.
