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NOV 2019

THE BARBICAN | CURZON SOHO | INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS | THE RIO l THE TABERNACLE | SOAS | P21

UMM AL HIRAN FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE - THE LONG DURATION OF A SPLIT SECOND

Saturday 23rd November | 4:00pm
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS, THE MALL, ST JAMES’, SW1Y 5AH

Shortly before dawn on 18 January 2017, police raided the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, in the northern Naqab/Negev desert. During the raid, two people were killed: a villager, Yaqub Musa Abu alQi’an, and a policeman, Erez Levi. Israeli officials described the death of Levi as a ‘terror attack’, and suggested that Abu alQi’an was connected to the terror group ISIS. But local residents and activists told a different story: police had fired at Abu alQi’an without provocation.

Since 2017, Forensic Architecture (FA) has worked with a group of documentary photographers, Activestills, to examine these claims. Our work pitted us directly against Israeli politicians and police chiefs, and exposed inconsistencies in the official account of the event, as well as mishandling of evidence after the fact.

Presented as 'The Long Duration of a Split Second', this project was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2018. This exclusive live presentation will allow audiences to see Forensic Architecture's investigation unfold in front of them, explained live. This ongoing project continues to expose new aspects to the case while also demonstrating the strength of media in the use of investigative journalism and the effects it can take on judicial systems in the ruling of complicit murder.