Performances dealing with histories of violence and trauma in contemporary societies In this book, scholars and artists from different fields such as Performance Studies, Cultural and Visual Studies, Psychology and Performance Art address how performances and performance practices engage with histories of violence and trauma in contemporary societies. They explore performance practices as alternative approaches to transitional justice schemes, as embodied encounters with witnesses inside and outside rehearsal spaces, and as research environments for artists working on intergenerational trauma, the legacies of colonialism and migration. The collection offers new ways of seeing, healing and remembering violence and trauma in and through contemporary performances. It challenges common assumptions about dominant and silenced narratives, as well as precarious and resilient bodies that embody performances of historical and ongoing violence and trauma. List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Histories of Trauma and Violence : Performance Practices of Removing and Remembering Christel Stalpaert, Marieke Breyne, Pedzisai Maedza, and Sofie de Smet PART I Politics of Truth Commissions: Performance Practices as Transitional Practices of Justice Chapter Performing Transitional Justice : Individual Accountability and Societal Reparation in Rwanda 94 (Groupov, 2000) and The Truth Commission (Action Zoo Humain, 2013) Klaas Tindemans Chapter 2 The Truth Commission According to Action Zoo Humain : Performing Differential Futures from a Traumatic Colonial Past in Belgium Christel Stalpaert and Evelien Jonckheere Chapter 3 Youth Day Commemoration in South Africa: Forgetting through Remembering Pedzisai Maedza PART 2 Performing Trauma: Dialogical Dramaturgies of Embodiment in Transgenerational Landscapes Chapter 4 ‘Peeling the Wound’ : Dramaturgies of Haunting on the Neo-Apartheid Stage in South Africa Mark Fleishman Chapter 5 Embodied Aesthetics of Vulnerability in Post-Marikana South Africa Marieke Breyne and Sofie de Smet PART 3 Artistic Voices as Embodied Testimonial Practices of Loss and Violence Chapter 6 Introducing Poo-tee-weet? Christel Stalpaert Poo-tee-weet? (On Catastrophic Mourning) Mekhitar Garabedian Chapter 7 Introducing Man on a Horse Samah Hijawi Man on a Horse Samah Hijawi Chapter 8 Introducing the Freshly Defeated Sofie de Smet The Freshly Defeated Ayham Salloum Notes on Contributors