BAK and Utrecht Digitaal – Forensic Justice
Forensic Architecture, M2 Hospital Bombing, 2017. According to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), the Omar Bin Abdul Aziz Hospital, also known as M2, was subject to fourteen strikes by pro-government forces from June to December 2016. By combining and cross-referencing photographs and videos take in an around the hospital, Forensic Architecture was able to reconstruct the architecture of the building as a 3D model and locate the exact sites of the bombings and the resultant damage. Image: Forensic Architecture, 2017
On Sunday 4 November, 2018, a new Cultural Sunday takes place, themed: Digital Utrecht. On this day, the exhibition Forensic Justice, with works by Forensic Architecture, can be visited free of charge from 10.00 until 19.00 hrs.
Forensic Architecture, a London-based independent and interdisciplinary research agency comprised of, among others, artists, scientists, lawyers, filmmakers, and architects uses novel research and aesthetico-political practice to investigate abuses of human rights and, more broadly, the rights of nature. They provide critical evidence for international courts and work with a wide range of citizen-led activist groups, NGOs, Amnesty International, and the United Nations, as well as with art institutions as significant public forums for distributing the investigations.
The exhibition Forensic Justice features a number of tactical forensic reclamations of social and ecological justice. Articulating evidence-based counter-narratives to dominant interpretations of investigated events, the installations mobilize what Forensic Architecture refers to as “public truth.” These mobilizations, as the exhibition proposes, can be understood as critical instances of “forensic justice.”
Forensic Architecture is nominated for the Turner Prize 2018. Earlier in 2018, the collective was awarded the Princess Margriet Award for Culture by the European Culture Foundation, Amsterdam.
The project is part of the BAK research series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020).
BAK’s main partner in the field of education and research is HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, Utrecht.
BAK’s activities have been made possible by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the City Council, Utrecht.
