Justice Demands and the negotiated process of art-work production in Argentina and Northern Ireland

Through an investigation of the relationship between art-making and legal process in two countries emerging from violent pasts- Argentina and Northern Ireland -this research project makes a timely contribution to both socio-legal work in the field of transitional justice and cultural-theoretical work on the politics of memory. Approaching artistic endeavours as processes of production, the research asks how 'justice demands' enter into that process, and how they are balanced against other sorts of demands. Three projects will be investigated in each country: one collective artistic group, one influential individual artist and one physical site of commemorative artistic endeavour.

Much of the scholarly work on transitional justice implies that a society's concerns for redress, or for truth and reconciliation processes, are focused on law and legal processes. There is an implication that legal processes must respond to these concerns. However, the literature on transitional justice is also beginning to acknowledge that there may be other routes by which a society reflects upon past violence that may also have a bearing on law, by calling for legal intervention, by replacing or supplementing it. Memories and sentiments about past violence can be depicted, provoked or re-aligned through artistic endeavours.

Through observation and interviews with artists, and other important actors in art-making process, the research will explore how artists in both countries consider their work in relation to formal processes of law, redress and reconciliation. It has been argued that there must be a social demand that exists before and outside formal legal processes.
This research asks: Is this an appropriate way to understand art-work production? Do these artists consider themselves part of that demand? Or is there a sense in which art works must be understood as alternatives and separate from legal processes? Do they seek to reflect 'community sentiment', to gather or more actively to produce it? Or are other processes and concerns more important- for example, if aesthetic and technological issues cannot be removed from making art, how do they relate to any demands for justice?