The Art of Truth: New Podcast Series Launches

We are pleased to announce the launch of our second podcast series, "The Art of Truth." This new series explores the links between art and truth, using a typology developed by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as a point of reference.

The TRC identified four kinds of truth as important in human rights and transitional justice: forensic truth (evidence and records), narrative truth (lived testimony), social truth (public listening and dialogue), and restorative truth (acknowledgement, repair, and the work of living on). Together with our guest artists, we reflect on how their work sheds light on these forms of truth, often enriching, complementing, or complicating the TRC’s framework.

Launching the series, episode one features Paul Gready in conversation with the renowned South African artist, William Kentridge. Together, they discuss Kentridge's play, ‘Ubu and the Truth Commission’, exploring the tug-of-war between revealing and destroying evidential truths, alongside the unique challenges of bringing narrative truth and lived testimony onto the stage. The discussion also explores the interplay between erasure and accretion, particularly visible in charcoal drawing, and highlights Kentridge's belief that true understanding is ultimately constructed and emerges through uncertainty, contradiction, and ambiguity.