Established in 2010, Forensic Architecture is a multidisciplinary research agency based in Goldsmiths, University of London. The organization is led by Eyal Weizman, a British-Israeli architect, and the team includes other architects, software developers, filmmakers, investigative journalists, artists, scientists, and lawyers. The group’s mission is to uncover state and corporate violence, human rights violations, and environmental destruction across the world with the assistance of novel technologies, such 3D animation, cartography, and virtual reality. The group provides crucial evidence for international courts and works with a wide range of activist groups and NGOs. They employ a variety of evidentiary tools, such as new media, remote sensing, material analysis, witness testimony, and crowd-sourcing.

Recently, the group has been investigating the plight of migrants crossing the Turkey-Greece border. On 28 October 2015, a migrant boat left the coast of western Turkey heading to the closest European territory—the Greek island of Lesvos. The ship wrecked, resulting in the death of at least 43 people. This was the deadliest incident of that period, known as “the long summer of migration.” One of the survivors, the artist Amel Alzakout, recorded the journey and wreck on a waterproof camera attached to her wrist. This footage, which also forms the basis of her subsequent film Purple Sea, is a unique, situated perspective of this tragic event at the threshold of Europe.  

In collaboration with Alzakout, Forensic Architecture reconstructs the boat’s journey, the shipwreck, and the rescue operation that followed. Cross-referencing the footage with other sources, including a long-range thermal video taken by artist Richard Mosse, videos shot by activists on the shores of Lesvos, professional media accounts, testimonials by the Greek coastguard, satellite imagery, and weather data, the group has worked to untangle what happened and who might be responsible. The reconstruction of the incident—involving smugglers, migrants, rescuers, coastguards, the European border agency Frontex, activists, fishermen, and NGOs—reveals the EU’s politics of closure, a systemic negligence that prioritizes the interception and repelling of those in search of refuge. 

On July 18th, UCCA Center for Contemporary is proud to invite Forensic Architecture Deputy Director and Lead Researcher Christina Varvia and artist Amel Alzakout to participate in a live stream dialogue with UCCA Exhibition Department Director Guo Xi and Curator of Public Programs Fang Yan, discussing their recent work and the multiple threads running through their practice. UCCA English Editor Simon Frank will serve as moderator.