Model Court: An Ecology of the Courtroom

14 February - 30 March 2014
Location: lobby Stroom, Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
Open: Monday to Friday, 11-17 hrs; Saturday and Sunday, 12-17 hrs

Friday 14 February 2014, 16-18 hrs: opening with artists' talk and screening of RESOLUTION 978 HD

Saturday 15 February 2014, 14-17 hrs
Live teleconferencing event (English spoken)

Part of See You in The Hague

Model Court is an ongoing collaboration between London-based artists and researchers Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Oliver Rees and architect Lorenzo Pezzani, that explores the shifting infrastructures of international justice. The presentation comprises the film RESOLUTION 978 HD commissioned by Gasworks, London and a live teleconferencing event focusing on the recently concluded trial of François Bazaramba.

Bazaramba is 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.

International jurisdiction usually is a matter for the experts. Its proceedings only make the frontpage of the newspaper or the headlines of the television news when there is a riot or another media spectacle. Model Court provides insight into the judicial process and everything surrounding it, by copying and re-enacting the events with the parties involved.

Using photographic and video documentation of the trial taken by Finnish policeman Thomas Elfgren, RESOLUTION 978HD examines how both the trial and the principle of universal jurisdiction on which they were based are facilitated and interrupted by media technologies.

On Saturday 15 February 2014 (14-17 hrs) there will be a live teleconferencing event at Stroom Den Haag with legal experts, technicians, journalists and others in various countries. The discussion will focus on the concept of universal jurisdiction, often presented as a 'juridical utopia'. What does it mean to be represented in pixels during a trial? Is there a mininum level of resolution for adequate representation? And how does the 5-second delay in audio influence the capacity to speak, and to be heard?
>> more info and participants: click here

Acknowledgments:
This component of the See You in The Hague is created in collaboration with the department Forensic Architecture, Goldsmiths University of London, GB; Polycom Nederland; IMOTIONS; and Hiil, innovating justice.

MODEL COURT GROUP

Lawrence Abu Hamdan
In 2012 London based artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan had two solo shows featuring new commissioned work The Freedom Of Speech Itself at The Showroom, London and The Whole Truth at CASCO, Utrecht. His ongoing project Aural Contract has been recently exhibited at Arnolfini, Bristol (2013) and The Taipei Biennial (2012). Other works include Marches for Artangel London (2008) and his collaboration as part of the group Model Court presented at Gasworks, London (2013). His hybridized practice means that he has written for Cabinet Magazine and the 10th Sharjah Biennial and is part of the group running the arts space Batroun Projects in north Lebanon. Abu Hamdan is a part of the research team Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths College where he is also a Phd candidate and lecturer.

Oliver Rees
Oliver Rees is an artist based in London. His work engages with different theatrical material, historical and conceptual processes that he relates to the practice of drawing. Recent solo shows and as part of the group Model Court include Gasworks, London (2013) Theaterhaus Jena, Jena (2012) The Hole, London; Bonheur Theatre Rotterdam; Chisenhale Gallery, London (all 2011). ). He is also currently completing a practice based PhD work at Middlesex University titled Drawing as Tragedy: The Comparative Architecture of Joseph Gandy.

Lorenzo Pezzani
Lorenzo Pezzani is an architect and researcher based in London. His work deals with the spatial politics and visual cultures of migration, human rights and media. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Centre for Research Architecture (Goldsmiths) and a teaching fellow in the MArch Urban Studies at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL). His practice-based research projects, moving across diverse disciplines and media, have been presented in exhibitions and talks at, among others, the 4th International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam; Tate Modern, Chisenhale Gallery and Gasworks in London; Henie Onstad Art Centre in Oslo; and HEAD in Geneva.

Sidsel Meineche Hansen
Sidsel Meineche Hansen is a London based artist who examines the production of nervousness across disciplines as a form of institutional critique. Her practice involves an ongoing series of seminars, her work has recently been presented at: The Nordic Model, Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmø (2013); Greens, Modern Institute, Glasgow (2013); And Yet There They Still Are, with Cally Spooner, LUX, London (2012). Exhibitions of her collaborative work as part of the group Model Court include: Gasworks, London (2013); CCA, Glasgow (2009). Hansen is part of Mayday Rooms, London and she will be a guest professor at the Funen Art Academy, Odense this autumn.

PRESS
Open!, 16 March 2014