Paper short abstract:

Interrogating law and art inside transitional justice, this paper examines the Marikana Commission from an aesthetic perspective. This allows for the investigation of bodies (dead/living/absent) in place of legalistic documents and offers a different evaluation of transitional justice's efficacy.

Paper long abstract:

On 16th August 2012, the South African Police Service fired live ammunition into a crowd of striking mineworkers on South Africa's platinum belt. Subsequently known as the Marikana Massacre, 34 men were killed that day, with many more severely injured. This paper argues that the Commission of Inquiry, instituted to uncover the truth about that day of violence, is a critical transitional justice moment for South Africa. But globally, law remains at the normative core of most transitional justice mechanisms; and transitional justice remains the dominant field when considering the aftermath of atrocity and violence. This overly legalistic approach to truth-telling after atrocity has been critiqued, with authors labelling such law-full exercises as limiting, providing "thin" justice. This paper suggests that problems with a legalistic approach can be countermanded by examining transitional justice mechanisms from an aesthetic perspective. This perspective can be best interrogated through the analytical framework of the physical body - bodies that are either still living, dead or unaccountably absent from the Marikana Commission.

This aesthetic perspective is identified through recalibrating sensory perception both inside the Marikana Commission and inside the blossoming artistic cannon that uses Marikana as its inspiration. By investigating both law and art from a perspective of bodies, not words, a re-evaluation of conventional transitional justice power dynamics is possible; and a closer examination of the role art plays in transitional justice allows for a more robust interrogation of this discipline's influence on transitional justice.