The Body Inside the Art and the Law of Marikana: A Case for Corporeality

Abstract

ABSTRACT∞ This article positions the Marikana Commission of Inquiry as a transitional justice moment for South Africa. Using aesthetic and affect theory, the article examines instances of bodily engagement at this Commission and in the art related to it. The resultant foregrounding of physicality reveals the possibility of both resistance and conformity that has been overlooked in current arts and transitional justice literature. Such resistance and conformity, present inside both the law and the art of Marikana and its Commission, suggest that a binaristic approach to arts and transitional justice misses the full critical potential of each discipline. Softening the boundaries of each discipline through a corporeal approach can reveal different evaluations of the efficacy of transitional justice – in this case, challenging the efficacy of the Marikana Commission’s goal of stakeholder inclusion.