Ape Law at Istanbul Design Biennial 2016

Are They Human? by Eyal Weizman

Ape Law examines the impact of human-induced environmental violence on other species. Utilising the example of Sandra, an orangutan who, in an Argentinian courtroom in 2015, became the first ape in the world to be granted human rights, the exhibit asks whether tropical forest fires can be recognised legally as acts of mass murder against the orangutans that inhabit those forests. A new kind of forensic archaeology tracks the fate of the apes by looking for and monitoring traces of their temporary architecture in the treetops.