Dialogues on Restitution, Memory, and Justice is an invitation for all to imagine what roles art and the law can play in building the world to come.
We see law and art as disciplines with profound connections to both justice and injustice. Despite purported neutrality, law has been often a source of, rather than a solution to, injustice. Art, too, is a complicated tool. It is the utmost expression of human creativity, but it has often been commodified and appropriated, its value reduced to its potential for consumption. At the traditional intersection of these fields, "art law" has often been deployed in defense of empire and as a method of maintaining status quo. How can we challenge the use of art & law as mechanisms of preserving privilege? How can we envision a future where these fields build together?
We start by going back. Considering historic injustice and the legacies of violence that we inherit today through the lenses of art and law is a way of understanding how we understand ourselves after loss or violence. By joining in a cross-disciplinary dialogue, we open the door to conversations about reparations as a possible product of engagement across fields and to broaden discussions of memory as a force in art and law.
