Creativity, culture and arts for peace

Gianmarco Pisa^[1]

Creative expression, through the «arts for peace», is the basis for the regeneration of social contexts:  

• Although apparently distant, the issues of the struggle for human rights and the construction of innovative spaces of relationship are intertwined, and the warp crossing them precisely consists of forms and practices of creative expression, culture and, especially, art. As the plastic arts contribute to animating and shaping public spaces, so literature, music and dramatic arts nourish with meaning day-by-day actions and social relations.
• The role of arts and culture in outlining imaginaries and building peace is well known. «Peacebuilding is about social change, transforming people’s perception of the world around them. [...] The arts can offer a new frame for interpreting the problem and the world around it. The artistic experience maintains the potential to transform people’s worldviews, identities, and relationships» [1].
• If, on the one hand, artistic expressions can allow people to express and narrate, to express themselves and narrate themselves, on the other hand, art is always building relationships. It can create convergence and feed creativity, where oppression and violence establish, on the contrary, segregation and discrimination, alienation and dehumanization.

In the action-research, implemented with IPRI-CCP (Italian Peace Research Institute - Civil Peace Corps), under the title PRO.ME.T.E.O. (PROductive MEmories to Trigger and Enhance Opportunities) in Kosovo, since 2016, the focus on art and culture is revealing the potential of cultural heritage and places of memory to help addressing issues of conflict and chances for peace building. The three photos of mine below, represent three main cultural places of the action-research:

The theoretical cornerstones of experiments addressing conflict transformation as well as initiatives with artistic background can be identified as the “moral imagination” which drives the cultural dimension of peacebuilding:

«Transcending violence is forged by the capacity to generate, mobilize, and build the moral imagination. … The moral imagination requires … the ability to sustain a paradoxical curiosity that embraces complexity without reliance on dualistic polarity; the fundamental belief in and pursuit of the creative act» [2].

The objective of the action-research is the one to raise the question whether a pluralistic and multifaceted approach to cultural identity and collective memory can give a positive contribution, in a post-conflict situation, to promote mutual understanding and pave the road to “positive peace”.

Not just a form of resistance, but also a practice of transformation. As UNESCO recalls, «culture contributes to identity, belonging and meaning. As a resource for community vitality, well-being and expression, it shapes peaceful societies through the recognition of and respect for the diversity of cultures and freedom of expression» [3].  

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1. Michael Shank, Lisa Schirch, Strategic Arts-Based Peacebuilding, Peace and Change: A Journal of Peace Research, vol. 33, issue 2, April 2008.

2. John Paul Lederach, The Moral Imagination. The Art and Soul of Building Peace, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 5.

3. UNESCO, Cutting Edge | Overcoming barriers to peace through culture, online, http://en.unesco.org/news/cutting-edge-overcoming-barriers-peace-through-culture, 31.03.2021.