Global Players
Global Players, Issue no. 42 of Arts of the Working Class, is released in collaboration with AFIELD and Framer Framed. Alongside it, we name the six fellows selected for the Transitional Justice with Artists (TJA) Grant, chosen from 364 applications submitted across 34 countries, following a two-month process of deliberation.
Together, these form the first movement of a two-chapter inquiry into transitional justice. Issue 42 lays the terrain: the framework's origins, the limits of international law, and the particular authority art could occupy where legal mechanisms fall short. The second chapter, to be published in 2027, will derive from within it, departing from the research, the methodologies, and the difficult material the fellows will revisit during their six-month fellowships.
Transitional Justice descends from the Nuremberg template of accountability, truth-seeking, and compensation, later adapted through South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Latin America's transitions from military rule, and the postwar reckonings of the Balkans. Yet as this issue proposes, the aftermath of violence resists linear resolution. It loops. It resurfaces on no tribunal's schedule. And because so much of international law is drafted in the Global North, in a register that holds lived experience at a formal remove, those closest to harm are frequently excluded from the making of structures promised to repair.
Across two six-month periods spanning 2026 and 2027, each fellow receives €10,000 and joins a peer-to-peer research group designed to circulate methodology and resources across contexts, culminating in a published feature in Arts of the Working Class and a seven-day residency hosted by Framer Framed in Amsterdam. The jury selecting the artists in two months described the fellows' collective task as one of "reconciling cognitive dissonance" across fractured histories, work that restores agency to affected communities precisely by refusing premature closure, insisting instead that "these histories be returned to, examined, and spoken about again."
The 2026 cohort opens with Aida Šehović, whose initiative ŠTO TE NEMA counters the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide denial through a nomadic monument and public rituals of collective mourning. François Makanga's Cultural Marronage in the Public Sphere confronts Belgian colonial erasure through theatrical walking tours and temporary museum interventions. Mihaela Drăgan's Giuvlipen Theatre Company points to anti-Roma racism and violence and reclaims narrative sovereignty through dramaturgy, documentary, and Roma Futurism.
The 2027 cohort follows close behind. Astrig Agopian's Like There's No Tomorrow builds an independent multimedia archive of testimonies following the mass displacement of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. Luz María Sánchez's Vis.[un]necessary force equips civilian search groups with custom wearable technologies to safeguard forensic evidence of enforced disappearances. And Yevheniia Moliar's DE NE DE transforms Soviet artifacts in local museum collections into “public assemblies” where conflicting historical narratives can safely coexist.
Where to find further information:
Order your issue 42 online (5,- € + shipping) or find physical copies on the streets of Berlin and Frankfurt, in Amsterdam (Framer Framed), in Paris (AFIELD), and at selected art events. Subscribe to the partners' newsletters and Instagram accounts to follow the project's development and receive announcements about the 2027 issue of Arts of the Working Class.
The Transitional Justice with Artists Grant is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
