A talk by Eyal Weizman (Founder, Forensic Architecture, Goldsmiths College, London) curated by The Serving Library in partnership with LJMU’s Exhibition Research Lab for Liverpool Biennial 2018

Forensic Architecture is both the name of an agency established in 2010, and a form of investigative practice into state violence and human rights violations that traverses architectural, journalistic and legal fields. In this talk, founder Eyal Weizman will unpack the term ‘forensic aesthetics’, one of several key concepts that underlie the group’s approach. Typically associated with manipulation, emotional or illusionary trickery, and subjective sentiment, the notion of ‘aesthetics’ seems antithetical to the legal conception of truth as objectively given. But aesthetic considerations traverse all dimensions of forensic operation. Forensics is an ‘aesthetic’ practice because it involves the modes and the means by which incidents are sensed and evidence is presented.

Eyal Weizman is an Israeli intellectual and architect. He is Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, London, and Director of the Centre for Research Architecture – a 'laboratory for critical spatial practices' that he created within the Department of Visual Cultures. In 2011 he established the agency Forensic Architecture, an interdisciplinary team of investigators that provides advanced architectural and media evidence to civil society groups such as truth commissions, courts and human rights reports. Forensic Architecture is nominated for the Turner Prize in 2018.

Join us from 6pm for drinks and conversation ahead of a prompt 6.30pm start.

This event is part of the public programme for Liverpool Biennial 2018, which includes a series of talks by leading thinkers and artists in response to the question Beautiful world, where are you?

Image credit: A crack in a building in Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood next to the Old City of Jerusalem, caused by the illegal excavation by a Jewish settler and used by Forensic Architecture as evidence in court, 2008. Image courtesy Gagi Dagon