A case for agonistic peacebuilding in Colombia

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the concept of agonistic peacebuilding in the light of the ongoing peace process in Colombia. We subscribe to an approach to agonistic peacebuilding that acknowledges conflict as an inevitable but also possibly productive dynamic. We think that the work by the Colombian research programme La paz es una obra de arte (Peace Is a Work of Art) is an inspiring case to analyse from this perspective. This programme, based at the University of Antioquia in Medellín, helps us understand in depth how agonistic peacebuilding strategies work through the arts, using clown interventions to foster life story narratives in order to transform former enemies into adversaries and engage all actors in the creation of peace.

Keywords:

• Agonistic peacebuilding
• Colombia’s peace process
• narrative
• La paz es una obra de arte
• thick recognition
• clown intervention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diana González Martín

Diana González Martín is Associate Professor in contemporary Latin American and Spanish culture, media and society at the Department of German and Romance Languages, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University (AU). She specialises in performing arts, aesthetics and cultural memory studies. Her current interests focus, on one hand, on exploring social movements and the relationship between activism and institutions in Latin American and European societies, strengthening a cooperation between the two regions that is mutually beneficial, and, on the other hand, on delving into methodologies for societal transformation through the arts. She has extensive experience working in international research groups such as the Horizon 2020 project Unsettling Remembering and Social Cohesion in Transnational Europe (UNREST), 2016–2019. Selected publications: ‘Going to the Theatre and Feeling Agonistic: Exploring Modes of Remembrance in Spanish Audiences’ (Hispanic Research Journal, 2020); ‘“To Understand Doesn’t Mean that You Will Approve”: Transnational Audience Research on a Theatre Representation of Evil’ (chapter co-authored with Hans Lauge Hansen, Palgrave Macmillian, in press) and the monograph Emancipación, plenitud y memoria. Modos de percepción y acción a través del arte (Iberoamericana Editorial Vervuert, 2015).

Hans Lauge Hansen

Hans Lauge Hansen is Professor at the School of Communication and Culture, Department of Spanish, Aarhus University. He specialises in the topics of contemporary narrative and cultural memory studies. He acted as PI on the research project entitled La memoria novelada, on the cultural memory of the Spanish civil war (Danish Research Council 2011–2014), and on the Horizon 2020 project 2016–2019 entitled Unsettling Remembering and Social Cohesion in Transnational Europe (UNREST). Selected publications: ‘Spanish and Latin American Memory Novels’, in Landscapes of Realism: Rethinking Literary Realism(s) in Global Comparative Perspective, edited by H. L. Larsen and Lombardo, John Benjamins, Forthcoming 2021); ‘On Agonistic Narratives of Migration’, International Journal of Cultural Studies 23, 4 (2020), and ‘On Agonistic Memory’ (with Anna Cento Bull), Memory Studies 9, 4 (2016).

Agustín Parra Grondona

Agustín Parra Grondona is Professor in the Department of Visual Arts and Coordinator of the programme La paz es una obra de arte, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín (Colombia). He develops research and creative processes on peacebuilding, migration, social transformation and healing through the arts. He is currently participating as Senior Researcher in the Horizon 2020 project Transforming Migration by Arts (TransMigrARTS). Selected publications: ‘Arte y sanación en la construcción de paz. Empatía, resiliencia emocional y perdón entre excombatientes de las FARC y la comunidad del municipio de Dabeiba (Antioquia)’ and ‘Evaluación del impacto del Taller Itinerante de Artes para la Paz sobre la afectividad de un grupo de maestros, promotores artísticos, excombatientes de las FARC y sus familiares en el municipio de Dabeiba’, in A. Y. Parra Ospina et al. La paz es una obra de arte. Una experiencia significativa del Taller Itinerante de Artes para la Paz (Medellín : Arts Faculty – University of Antioquia, 2020) 26–85, 264–275; and ‘Transformar el trauma de las víctimas de la violencia: Una experiencia en educación artística’, Artes La Revista 16, 23 (2017), 256–264.