Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal: Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes—Extinction Wars

Curator and Researcher: Juhyun Cho

Artists: Radha D’Souza, Jonas Staal

Writer, academic, lawyer, and activist Radha D’Souza and artist and propaganda researcher Jonas Staal are the co-founders of the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC): an alternative tribunal that prosecutes states and corporations for their complicity in climate crimes past, present and future.

Presented by Framer Framed as the Netherlands pavilion in the Gwangju Museum of Art at the 14th Gwangju Biennale, D’Souza and Staal have created a new iteration of the CICC on the subject of “Extinction Wars.” Against the backdrop of ongoing wars in Korea, Southeast Asia, and internationally, the very existence of the military-industrial complex itself, the artists argue, should be considered a climate crime. The Court will be open for general visitation between April 5 and July 30, 2023. On April 7, 8, and 9, you can join public hearings at the CICC to listen to prosecutors and witnesses from various social movements and activist organizations testify to the role of states and corporations in perpetuating climate war crimes, specifically in the context of Korea. 

Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC): Extinction Wars
Based on D’Souza’s book What’s Wrong With Rights? (2018) the first iteration of the CICC was co-produced and commissioned by Framer Framed and took place in Amsterdam, with public hearings in which the Dutch State and trans-national corporations registered in the Netherlands, such as Unilever, ING and Airbus, were tried for committing climate crimes. Prosecutors and witnesses provided evidence of their wrongdoing. The public acted as jury and was tasked with passing a verdict based on the Intergenerational Climate Crimes Act: the legal foundation of the CICC.

Presented at the Gwangju Biennale Pavilion, Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC): Extinction Wars highlights the role of the military-industrial complex in climate crimes, arguing that the very existence of the fossil fuelled military-industrial complex is an ecocidal crime against natures and peoples. Wars have devastating multigenerational impact on human communities, but equally on the complex ecosystems that sustain them. And climate catastrophe should itself be considered a war crime: an extinction war waged against living worlds.

Gwangju Biennale Pavilion
The Gwangju Biennale Pavilion will take place alongside the Gwangju Biennale’s main exhibition, soft and weak like water, with the nine participating cultural organisations working on their exhibitions in cooperation with pre-allocated culture and art institution counterparts in the Gwangju area.

Initiated in 2018, the Pavilion involves exhibitions from prominent international cultural organisations to break down borders between different art environments and communicate a message unique to the city of Gwangju. With three organisations represented at the 12th Gwangju Biennale in 2018 and two at the 13th Gwangju Biennale in 2021, this year’s Pavilion will be the largest yet, with arts and culture organisations from nine different countries. The Netherlands Pavilion, co-produced by Framer Framed, will be held at the Gwangju Museum of Art.

Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC): Extinction Wars is co-commissioned and co-produced by Framer Framed in collaboration with the Gwangju Biennale Pavilion

Hosted by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and the Gwangju Metropolitan City

In cooperation with Gwangju Museum of Art

Supported by Arts Council Korea (ARKO), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands), Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AfK), the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Korea, and the Mondriaan Fund