"Visual Investigations: Between Advocacy, Journalism, and Law" exhibition opening at The Architekturmuseum der TUM Oct. 10, 2024

MEDIA CONFERENCE: 9 OCTOBER 2024, 11.00 A.M. | IN THE PRESENCE OF RESEARCH TEAM MEMBERS

OPENING: 9 OCTOBER 2024, 7.00 P.M.

EXHIBITION DURATION: 10 OCTOBER 2024 UNTIL 9 FEBRUARY 2025

Human rights violations are more present in a democratic country's public domain than ever before, not least due to the ubiquity of image sources: smartphones, satellites, surveillance equipment, and police body cameras produce large volumes of audiovisual material, recording violent and repressive incidents, as well as persistent injustices. Newsrooms, prosecutor’s offices, and human rights organizations alike have become increasingly concerned with processing and contextualizing this stream of data, both in the context of immediate, breaking news as well as through longer-term reporting and accountability mechanisms.

In order to provide comprehensive analyses and presentations, those working in the field of visual investigations utilize a range of tools to connect video and image content with people, places, and events. Interdisciplinary teams that can include architects, filmmakers and computer scientists, among others, mobilize a diverse constellation of tools and methods to analyze violations across time and space. Their aim is to uncover and present the facts and their contexts rigorously, transparently, and as independently as possible. In the face of a rapidly evolving landscape of contested events and misinformation, visual investigation has undergone accelerated development.

We are dedicating our exhibition to the field of visual investigations to show, through a series of seven case studies from five continents, how architecture operates between advocacy, journalism, and the law in the pursuit of justice and accountability. Four investigative teams exhibit their methods, findings, results and conclusions in various formats. These range from maps and films to models and interactive platforms. The presentations of the individual case studies, which are presented spatially and thematically as self-contained units, are embedded in a methodological framework that sheds light on the researchers' tools and their development.

In a world in which political and military conflicts as well as the consequences of climate change are forcing more and more people to flee and protest, it seems logical that architecture is also increasingly taking on the task of exposing violence and injustice.

The Architekturmuseum der TUM would like to thank its cooperation partners and is pleased to present the following case studies to its visitors:

US Policing and the Suppression of Dissent

SITU Research, in collaboration with Human Rights Watch (HRW), the National Lawyers Guild’s BLM/Floyd Litigation Task Force, and Jon Nealon,

2020 and 2022–23

During the months of demonstrations that followed the murder of Black American George Floyd by police officers on May 25, 2020, the New York Police Department (NYPD) repeatedly assaulted protesters, bystanders, and legal observers. The installation shows two investigations emerging from this period of civil unrest, uncovering patterns of excessive police force.

In Plain Sight: Remote Sensing and Land Dispossession in the West Bank

SITU Research, in collaboration with Yesh Din, Bimkom – Planning and Human Rights, Michael Sfard, Adam Maloof, and Ryan Manzuk,

2023–ongoing

Presented publicly for the first time as part of the exhibition, this ongoing investigation aims to document and analyze changes in land possession and land use in the West Bank. Given that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a territorial one, this work examines the spatial representation of systematic discrimination, and whether remote sensing tools show patterns of disinheritance over time and space in relation to areas in the West Bank.

The Sound of Bullets: Investigating the Killing of Colombian Journalist Abelardo Liz

Bellingcat, in collaboration with Cerosetenta,

2023

An immersive audio installation developed in 2024 for the show aims to recreate the events of August 13, 2020, when Indigenous Colombian journalist Abelardo Liz was fatally shot while filming at a land rights demonstration on a hacienda about five hundred kilometers southwest of the capital city of Bogotá. The installation seeks to share details of the team’s sound analysis in the hope that it will empower researchers, human rights activists, journalists, and open source investigators to carry out this work.

Investigating Xinjiang’s Network of Detention Camps

Alison Killing, Megha Rajagopalan, and Christo Buschek for BuzzFeed News,

2018–2020

Since late 2016, it is estimated that over one million Muslims have been imprisoned in a secretive network of detention camps and prisons in Xinjiang, China. At the start of this investigation in 2018, little was known about the network of camps or the locations to which the missing people had been taken. In a film that was shown at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023, the team members present their research in eight chapters that chronologically recapitulate their approach and conclusions.

A City within a Building: The Russian Air Strike on Mariupol’s Theater

The Center for Spatial Technologies, in collaboration with Forensic Architecture and Forensis,

2022–ongoing

This project investigates the bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater on March 16, 2022, and assembles the voices of those citizens who were accommodated in the theater, survived the air strike and now live in the diaspora within a digital project of reconstruction. The resulting model is a rich collection of collective and individual memories. Five of the ten detailed witness interviews are shown in the exhibition and their contribution to the 3D model is dissected.

Documenting the Death Flights

SITU Research, in collaboration with Centro Prodh and Alicia de los Ríos Merino,

2023–2024

Together with the Mexico-based human rights organization Centro Prodh, SITU Research analyzed one of Mexico’s most clandestine programs of enforced disappearances during the so-called “Dirty War” period (late 1960s to early 1980s). The installation presents a 14-minute visual investigation about the “death flights” and other media artifacts that explore the relationship between social memory, spatial reconstructions, and the pursuit of evidence in the historical record.

What Is Owed? Taking the Climate Crisis to the World Court

SITU Research, in collaboration with the University of Chicago’s Global Human Rights Clinic, Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, World’s Youth for Climate Justice, and Suneil Sanzgiri,

2023–ongoing

People on the frontlines of the climate crisis are frequently those who have contributed least to climate harms. While climate scientists, legal scholars, and world leaders debate the extent of the climate crisis and how to mitigate it, coalitions of young people have been working together to take action on their own, refusing to let their homes disappear. As part of the activist-led efforts to urge the International Court of Justice to rule on the obligations owed by top violators due to climate inaction, the exhibition debuts a film showing the lived experiences of communities facing the climate crisis in the context of island nations in the South Pacific.

Collaborators: Alison Killing, London; Bellingcat, Amsterdam; The Center for Spatial Technologies (CST), Kyiv and Berlin; and SITU Research, New York City

Curators: Lisa Luksch, Andres Lepik

Exhibition design: CPWH, Munich (with exhibition design support by Amir Halabi, SITU Research)

Graphic design: PARAT.cc, Munich

The exhibition was generously supported by PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne and Freundeskreis Architekturmuseum TUM.

PUBLICATION

A reading book will be published to accompany the exhibition in English and German:

Reading Visual Investigations. Between Advocacy, Journalism, and Law, edited by Lisa Luksch and Andres Lepik, with contributions from Bellingcat, Ralf Breker (Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt), The Center for Spatial Technologies (CST), Sam Dubberley (Human Rights Watch), Bora Erden (New York Times), Sam Gregory (Witness), Alison Killing (Killing Architects), Laura Kurgan (Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, GSAPP), Andres Lepik (TUM Technische Universität München), Lisa Luksch (TUM Technische Universität München), Anjli Parrin (University of Chicago Law School), SITU Research, Patrick Brian Smith (Counter Evidentiary Network), and Lea Weinmann (Süddeutsche Zeitung); ENG ISBN 978-3-9817790-3-5, GER ISBN 978-3-9817790-4-2.

PUBLIC PROGRAM

For the duration of the exhibition, we offer a diverse public program; you can find the latest information on the museum website at www.architekturmuseum.de/en/aktuell/.

Nevertheless, we would like to point out the following formats in advance:

TUE, 8 OCTOBER 2024 | 7.00 P.M. | Panel Discussion to Accompany the Exhibition Opening

On Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at 7.00 pm, we will host a panel discussion with participants of the exhibition, free and open to the public, at the Oskar von Miller Forum, Oskar-von-Miller-Ring 25, 80333 Munich.

How does architecture operate between advocacy, journalism, and the law in uncovering human rights violations and making them visible? The conversation between Sam Dubberley (Human Rights Watch), Lea Weinmann (Süddeutsche Zeitung), and Anjli Parrin (University of Chicago Law School’s Global Human Rights Clinic) will be moderated by architect Brad Samuels (SITU Research, New York City).

WED, 9 OCTOBER 2024 | 7.00 P.M. | Exhibition Opening

On Wednesday, October 9, 2024, at 7.00 pm, we invite the public to our exhibition opening at the Architekturmuseum der TUM in the Pinakothek der Moderne, Barer Str. 40, 80333 Munich.

Speaking at the opening will be Prof. Dr. Juliane Winkelmann (Executive Vice President for International Alliances and Alumni, TUM), Prof. Dr. Andres Lepik (Director of the TUM Architecture Museum), Brad Samuels (Director of SITU Research, New York City), Lisa Luksch (curator of the exhibition), and Sam Dubberley (Director of Technology, Rights and Investigations at Human Rights Watch).

WED, 27 NOVEMBER 2024 | 6.00 P.M. | Panel Discussion: Ethical Challenges and Collaborative Futures in Digital Investigations

On Wednesday, November 27, 2024, at 6.00 pm, we invite you to an exchange with members of the Counter Evidentiary Network (CEN) at Pavillon 333, Türkenstr. 15, 80333 Munich.

Counter Evidentiary Network (CEN), a new research initiative in the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology at the University of Salford. This interdisciplinary and collaborative network aims to foster dialogue, critical reflection, and knowledge exchange between various practice- and research-based open source investigation groups and individuals who are involved in exposing human rights violations and other forms of corporate and political violence. Speakers include: Patrick Brian Smith (founder of CEN, University of Salford), Hadi Al Khatib (Mnemonic), Adebayo Okeowo (WITNESS), Nishat Awan (University College London), Ekin Urgen (Human Rights Watch), Başak Ertür (Goldsmiths), and Andrew Williams (University of Warwick).

PUBLIC GUIDED TOURS

“One hour with... curator Lisa Luksch” on Thursday, Oct 24, 2024, Nov 21, 2024 and Dec 12, 2024, 6.30–7.30 p.m.

Guided tours through the exhibition on Friday, Oct 18, 2024 and Dec 13, 2024, 4–5 p.m.

and on Saturday, Oct 26, 2024 and Nov 23, 2024, 3–4 p.m.

English guided tours through the exhibition on Sunday, Oct 20, 2024 and Nov 10, 2024, 12–1 p.m.

CONTACT INFORMATION

ARCHITEKTURMUSEUM DER TUM
Lisa Luksch | Architekturmuseum der TUM
at the Pinakothek der Moderne
Arcisstraße 21 | 80333 München
T +49 (0)89 289 28342 | F +49 (0)89 289 28333
E-Mail: luksch@architekturmuseum.de
www.architekturmuseum.de

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