Paper short abstract:

This paper explores a feminist reading of gendered memorial art in postconflict Peru. In particular, I explore victimhood, agency, and representation across lines of class, race, and gender in memorial art and if and how such works may unsettle gendered understandings of past and present forms of violence.

Paper long abstract:

Symbolic reparation, or public memory work, is increasingly seen as an essential part of post-conflict reparation, both by global institutions such as the UN as well as by local and global Transitional Justice advocates. Artists, writers, and curators represent, critique or deconstruct elements of a violent past that are often contested, thereby contributing to debates about the nature of reparation and representation. This paper explores the tension between top-down and bottom-up initiatives and between different narratives of the past. In particular, I explore victimhood, agency, and representation across lines of class, race, and gender and look at how gendered aspects of violence are recalled in artistic representations of the past, and if and how such representations may provide any form of redress, reparation, or consolation for victim-survivors of war.