CREATIVE ENCOUNTERS: BETWEEN ARTS AND GOVERNANCE
Ananda BREED
University of East London, United Kingdom, a.breed@uel.ac.uk
This paper will explore how the creative arts are used to navigate between public
transcripts and hidden transcripts (Scott, 1992) in relation to transitional justice
systems and overriding government structures using Rwanda’s gacaca courts and
Kyrgyzstan’s switch from communism to democracy as case study examples. Artistic
mediums can negotiate political and social tensions and serve to open up new
spaces for varied alternative narratives to emerge. However, the arts can also be coopted to enforce authoritarianism. It is this tension between states of resistance and
repression that often signifies how, when and where new discourses or creative
forms emerge as constantly shifting points of navigation within conflict/post-conflict
societies. I will use empirical research from my fieldwork in Rwanda between 20142012 and Kyrgyzstan between 2009-2014 to explore the creative encounters
between the arts and governance.