Visual Investigations: Between Advocacy, Journalism, and Law
Collaborators
Centro Prodh, National Security Archives, Human Rights Watch, National Lawyers Guild, Jon Nealon, Yesh Din, Michael Sfard, Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights, Adam Maloof and Ryan Manzuk of Princeton University Department of Geoscience, Anjli Parrin and the University of Chicago’s Global Human Rights Clinic, World Youth for Climate Justice, Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, and Suneil Sanzgiri
Location
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
Completion
2024
Photography
Alexander Fthenakis
New projects by SITU and our collaborators are presented at the Architekturmuseum der TUM in Munich as part of the group exhibition, “Visual Investigations: Between, Advocacy, Journalism, and Law.”
Visual Investigations: Between Advocacy, Journalism and Law was curated by Lisa Luksch and Andres Lepik at the Pinakothek Moderne of the Architekturmuseum der TUM. The group exhibition is dedicated to the emergent field of visual investigations to show, through a series of seven case studies, how architecture operates between advocacy, journalism, and the law in the pursuit of justice and accountability.
Featured investigations dive into issues including detention camps in the Xinjiang region of China (Killing Architects, London), the suppression of dissent by police in the United States (SITU), the killing of Colombian journalist Abelardo Liz (Bellingcat, Amsterdam), the Russian airstrike on Mariupol’s Drama Theatre (the Center for Spatial Technologies, Kyiv and Berlin), remote sensing and land dispossession in the West Bank (SITU), enforced disappearances during Mexico’s “Dirty War,” and the consequences of the climate crisis for Pacific Island states (SITU).
From SITU’s four case studies, two were presented at the museum for the first time: “In Plain Sight: Remote Sensing and Land Dispossession in the West Bank” focused on our ongoing work on Palestinian land dispossession and Israeli settler expansion in the West Bank, with collaborators Yesh Din and Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights, attorney Michael Sfard, Adam Maloof and Ryan Manzuk of Princeton's Department of Geosciences, and testimony from Palestinian farmers Abdelkarim Shamasneh, Haroun Kahla, and Sa’ed Hussein Abu Alia.
“What is Owed: Taking the Climate Crisis to the World’s Court.”
People on the frontlines of the climate crisis are frequently those who have contributed least to climate harms—including Indigenous groups, individuals living in small island nations and communities across the Global South. In many spaces, the corrosive transnational forces of the climate crisis are exacerbated by unfettered fossil fuel emissions, military buildup, and the legacies and ongoing impacts of colonial expansion.
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. Following years of advocacy, in March 2023, the United Nations adopted a resolution asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—the “World’s Court”—to rule on the obligations owed by top violators due to climate inaction. The Court has received a record number of written submissions, and is slated to hold oral hearings on the case in December 2024, followed by an advisory opinion.
The irony, however, is that while the advisory opinion only exists because of the advocacy efforts of young people – at the ICJ, only States will be able to participate. This case, which is all about young people and future generations, will largely formally proceed without their voices. To help ensure that the perspectives of those most impacted by the climate crisis are front and center at the court, "What is Owed: Taking the Climate Crisis to the World's Court" is being presented as an installation at the museum, and will continue to orbit other activist-led efforts and initiatives related to the case this winter and spring.
Developed with artist and experimental filmmaker Suneil Sanzgiri, the short minute film weaves together a wide range of visual evidence, from archival footage in the Pacific Islands to oceanic 3D renderings, remote sensing satellite imagery, testimonies from activists, and more. The video works to reveal the inherent colonial conditions of the ICJ—past and present— and the struggle for survival of Indigenous peoples across the Pacific Islands. This work was conceived in close collaboration with youth groups and student campaigners from the Pacific Island Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC), the World Youth for Climate Justice (WYCJ), and the University of Chicago’s Global Human Rights Clinic.
The exhibition also features our work on police brutality and the suppression of dissent in the United States, and "Documenting the Death Flights," which addresses the extra-legal practice of enforced disappearances during Mexico’s so-called “Dirty War”. Two previously released investigations, both were re-conceptualized as installations with expanded components.
The following text accompanied the introduction of the exhibition:
Human rights violations are more present in the 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 presentations, those working in the field of visual investigation 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. From applying geo-spatial analysis and 3D modeling to the rapidly developing fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence, 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—a reality that presents opportunities and challenges in equal measure.
Exhibition design: CPWH, Munich, with Amir Halabi, exhibition designer for SITU Research
Graphic design: PARAT.cc, Munich
Special thank you to Kate Doyle and Claire Dorfman from the National Security Archives and our colleagues from Centro Prodh for their collaboration on the installation, “Documenting the Death Flights.”
Accompanying the exhibition is a publication featuring interviews and essays by leading international experts from the field, "Reading Visual Investigations: Between Advocacy, Journalism, and Law" (English and German, edited by Lisa Luksch and Andres Lepik, published by ArchiTangle, Berlin. Purchase your copy here.
