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Forensic Architecture took part in Biennale Warszawa 2022, showing Digital Violence: How the NSO Group Enables State Terror. This is a project that maps the use of the malware Pegasus – made by the Israeli cyber-weapons company NSO Group – against human rights defenders and journalists worldwide. It records the experiences and resistance of global civil society in the face of rising digital violence enacted by states and corporations. Digital Violence tells the story of a complex form of digital targeting that seeks to silence and extinguish the networks of collaboration belonging to those under surveillance.
Alongside Forensic Architecture, Biennale Warszawa 2022 presented nearly thirty artists from around the world, and was accompanied by a public program that included performative lectures, debates, workshops, presentations and seminars. They explored themes around the major challenges associated with the entanglement of technology, nature, politics, authoritarianism, and the new economy. Artists think about how digital infrastructure and material objects from the web are often overlooked in conversations about technology; algorithms and artificial intelligence are widely considered to be neutral and objective but affect all spheres of our life; reactionary ideology and conservative politics are often hidden in the modern garb of technological development.
In the previous practice of Biennale Warszawa, critical reflection has always been complemented by actions aimed at designing or creating alternative solutions, ideas, or prototypes. The same is the case in 2022. The exhibition also featured works focused on designing more democratic, equal and just technologies. Today, more than ever, we need that freedom of imagination, lest we succumb to dystopian, fearful and paralysing visions of catastrophe. Some of these works have been created by artists and activists fighting various forms of political and technological oppression in different parts of the world.