The Bombing of Rafah

Forensic Architecture / United Kingdom / 2015 / The film already had its Czech Premiere / 9 min.

synopsis

Rafah, a city on the border between Gaza and Egypt, became the target of four days of bombing after the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier on August 1, 2014. The Forensic Architecture collective analysed footage from mobile phones and satellite images and compiled an accurate spatiotemporal model of the events using synchronization, 3D modelling, and examination of the shapes of smoke clouds, shadows, and craters. This served as evidence for Amnesty International, which did not have physical access to the area, to accuse Israel of war crimes. Pure work with digital traces is transformed here into an image of the world—a detective visualization of destruction and its impact on the civilian population.

“Today, artists are engaged in investigation. They probe corruption, human rights violations, environmental crimes and technological domination. At the same time, areas not usually thought of as artistic make powerful use of aesthetics. Journalists and legal professionals pore over opensource videos and satellite imagery to undertake visual investigations. This combination of diverse fields is what the authors call ‘investigative aesthetics’: the mobilisation of sensibilities associated with art, architecture and other such practices in order to speak truth to power.” — Matthew Fuller and Eyal Weizman, Investigative Aesthetics: Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth, Verso Books, 2021

biography

Forensic Architecture is a field of study and research agency founded in 2010 by Eyal Weizman at Goldsmiths, University of London. It investigates state and corporate violence—from police repression and civilian casualties of conflict to colonialism and environmental destruction. It uses unique methods that combine data analysis, static and moving images, and scientific knowledge with aesthetics. At the core of their practice is the geolocation of videos and images in navigable 3D models, complemented by the development of interactive cartographies or so-called “situated testimony,” where survivors' testimonies are placed in a specific space.