Despite their cultural prevalence in the past century, photography and video imagery have only recently been incorporated as legitimate forms of evidence in justice systems. Yet once they were, it became increasingly difficult to substantiate any legal claim without such forms of media. The witness testimony—the historical epitome of juridical proceedings—has seemingly fallen by the wayside in favor of more robust, less forgetful evidentiary materials. Not every crime is, or can be, captured in an image, however, and lived experience is still a privileged type of event-based knowledge. What is needed today is not a diminution of the human voice, but creative means of its amplification.

Focusing on the evidentiary method of the testimony, Ana Naomi de Sousa presents Saydnaya, 2016, the reconstruction of a Syrian torture prison of which there are no images. Cheikh “Papa” Sakho, Mustapha Mujahid, and Jo van der Spek bring into the discussion the Migrant 2 Migrant Foundation’s ongoing response to the Schipholbrand, the 2005 fire in which eleven migrants died while being trapped in an airport detention complex.

Visit the BAK website for more information.