Triple-Chaser
Artist Talk by Forensic Architecture (represented by Robert Trafford)
18 May 2021, 7 pm (Bratislava time)
Event will be held in English and it will be streamed via Facebook page tranzit.sk.
As a warm up event Robert Trafford from the Forensic Architecture team will speak about their research-based work Triple-Chaser (2019) to be shown within the exhibition ‘Life, Death, Love and Justice’ to be opened in the summer of 2021 at tranzit.sk. When Forensic Architecture were invited to the Whitney Museum’s 2019 Biennial in New York, a controversy was already brewing on the other side of the country. Tear gas had been used against refugees and migrants at the US-Mexico border in Tijuana – the tear gas manufacturer, SAFARILAND, was owned by Warren B. Kanders, vice chair of the Whitney’s board of trustees. In response, Forensic Architecture premiered their TRIPLE-CHASER investigation at the biennial. A partnership with Laura Poitras’ Praxis Films, TRIPLE-CHASER examines the use of SAFARILAND’s tear gas against civilians around the world, showcases Forensic Architecture’s newly-developed machine learning techniques for open source research, and explores possible connections between a second Kanders-connected company, Sierra Bullets, and the shocking violence carried out by Israel at the Gaza border fence in 2018, when 150 civilians, including 35 children, were killed by Israeli gunfire during months of protests. The investigation contributed to a vibrant activist movement, which ultimately led to Kanders’ resignation from the Whitney’s board after Forensic Architecture and other artists threatened to withdraw from the exhibition.
Robert Trafford is a researcher and open source investigator with Forensic Architecture, and one of the coordinators of the TRIPLE-CHASER project. He will introduce the work of the agency, before discussing the TRIPLE-CHASER project in depth, exploring the ways in which its multi-disciplinary and cross-border collaboration typifies the agency’s investigative practice.
Event is part of the exhibition Life, Death, Love and Justice curated by Didem Yazıcı and Peter Sit.
ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit. Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.
The Life, Death, Love and Justice exhibition and its events have been also supported by Goethe-Institut Slovakia.
Forensic Architecture, Triple Chaser (film still), Bounding Box_1, (Forensic Architecture/Praxis Films) © FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE, 2021