Model Court
RESOLUTION 978 HD
Until 7 July 2013
Gasworks
155 Vauxhall Street
London SE11 5RH
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday noon–6pm
Gasworks presents the exhibition RESOLUTION 978 HD by Model Court, an ongoing collaboration between London-based artists and researchers Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Lorenzo Pezzani and Oliver Rees, whose practice explores the shifting infrastructures of international justice.
The exhibition comprises a newly commissioned film and installation focusing on the recently concluded trial of François Bazaramba, a Rwandan citizen who sought asylum in Finland in 2003, where he was convicted nine years later for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In a bizarre geographical inversion, the Finnish trial took place from 2009 to 2010 in improvised courts in Rwanda and Tanzania, with the legal proceedings transmitted to and from Bazaramba’s Helsinki prison cell via Skype and other videoconferencing technologies.
Universal jurisdiction, the legal principle by which the trial was conducted, is often presented as a form of “juridical utopia” whereby the most heinous of acts, such as genocide and crimes against humanity, can be tried without regard for national borders. Whereas most universal jurisdiction cases are brought to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Bazaramba trial presents a unique example of a de-centered legal process. Its unprecedented use of technology reconfigured the space of law and established an unexpected connection between peripheries.
Using photographic and video documentation of the trial taken by Finnish policeman Thomas Elfgren, RESOLUTION 978 HD examines how both the trial and the principle of universal jurisdiction on which they were based are facilitated and interrupted by media technologies. By interrogating the Finnish court’s genuine attempt to engage with the realities of genocide, the exhibition comments upon the politics of media technologies and Europe’s neocolonial relationship to Africa.
Events
RESOLUTION 978 HD,screening & discussion
Thursday 20 June 7pm
A screening of RESOLUTION 978 HD (2013, HD video, 35 minutes, Finland / UK) by Model Court, followed by a discussion between the artists and Gasworks’ exhibitions curator Robert Leckie.
DʼArusha à Arusha, screening & discussion
Thursday 27 June 7pm
A screening of DʼArusha à Arusha ([From Arusha to Arusha], 2008. 114 minutes, France / Canada / Rwanda) by French filmmaker Christophe Gargot, which looks at the international tribunal of the major offenders in the genocide and civil war in Rwanda that took place in Arusha, Tanzania from 1995. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director.
Presentation: Linda Mulcahy on Legal Architecture and the Shifts Towards the Virtual Trial
Thursday 4 July 7pm
Linda Mulcahy, professor at LSE’s Department of Law and author of Legal Architecture: Justice, Due Process and the Place of Law, speaks about her research on the history of legal architecture and more recent shifts towards the virtual trial. Her presentation will be followed by a Q&A.
