Between power and peace*

* Available at Galerie ESPACE33 in Gatineau, Québec
Contact:

• +1 819 682-6186
• espace33galerie@gmail.com
• https://espace33.ca/

48″ x 48″ x 1.5″ acrylic paint on canvas.

Living and researching in a post-conflict community, I came to understand what Johan Galtung (1996) meant with his distinction between negative and positive peace. Negative peace is merely the absence of violent conflict.

In truth, much of the global pursuit of peace is focused on negative peace – the kind where inequalities of power are inescapable and where peace is simply the management of power.

There’s a kind of poverty of imagination in this pursuit that makes positive peace unthinkable. Certainly, it feels impossible when there is so much war and violence around the world. But if we don’t imagine something, it can never be. A new moral imagination is needed that opens the door to radical reforms toward solidarity, justice, and harmony.