Perspectives
From the Murder of Halit Yozgat
Kassel, Germany, 6 April 2006
On 6 April 2006, 21-year-old Halit Yozgat was murdered in his family run internet café in Kassel, Germany. His was the ninth of ten racist murders committed in Germany between 2000 and 2007 by a neo-Nazi group known as the National Socialist Underground (NSU). At the time of the killing Andreas Temme, an agent of the German domestic intelligence service (Verfassungsschutz), was present in the café. Temme claimed not to have witnessed the murder.
Within the 77 square metres of the internet café, and the 9 minutes 26 seconds during which the incident unfolded, different actors – members of migrant communities, a state employee and the murderers – were positioned in relation to each other in a manner yet to be made clear, but one whose implications bear great political significance. This unit of space and time stands as a microcosm of the social and political controversy known as the ‘NSU Complex’.
Commissioned by Unraveling the NSU Complex, a Germany-wide alliance of anti-racism activists, Forensic Architecture’s investigation became possible when hundreds of documents from the Hessen police investigation of the murder – reports, witness depositions, photographs, and computer and phone logs – were leaked at the end of 2015.
One of the most important pieces of evidence in this leak was a video of a police re-enactment performed by Andreas Temme. Such re-enactments are often ritualistic events forming part of an admission or confession, denoting justice fulfilled. In Forensic Architecture’s investigation the re-enactment is treated not only as a representation of an event, but an event in itself; a potential crime – of perjury and misrepresentation – in its own right.
Within a reconstructed real-scale physical model of the internet café – the exact dimensions of which are marked here on a black carpet – Forensic Architecture re-enacted this re-enactment in order to examine Temme’s testimony, while also carrying out further tests to analyse the threshold of sensory perception. A video presented here shows moments from this process of re-enactment.
The video triptych 77sqm_9:26min presents Forensic Architecture’s full analysis of the events surrounding Halit Yozgat’s murder. This investigation established that Temme’s testimony was untruthful, opening up to larger questions regarding the involvement of German state agencies with radical right-wing groups. As the NSU trial approaches its conclusion in 2018, the truth of the murder – and above all, Temme’s presence at the scene – remains obscured.
The mural presented here charts the events related to the production, presentation and subsequent contestation of Forensic Architecture’s analysis across multiple forums: press conferences, cultural institutions, public demonstrations, two parliamentary inquiries and a criminal court. In each of these forums, Forensic Architecture was obliged to defend its evidence according to different rules and conventions. The complexity of this flow diagram traces the indeterminate nature of counter forensics, its methods, limitations and points of impact.
[Institute of Contemporary Arts]
Part of Counter Investigations by Forensic Architecture (March-May 2018).
Forensic Architecture is both the name of the agency established in 2010, and a form of investigative practice into state violence and human rights violations that traverses architectural, journalistic and legal fields, and shifts between critical reflections and tactical interventions.
Counter Investigations presents a selection of recent investigations undertaken by the agency into incidents occurring in different contexts worldwide. In parallel, the exhibition outlines five key concepts that raise related historical, theoretical and technological questions. Continuing to be explored in an accompanying series of public seminars, these investigations and propositions add up to a Short Course in Forensic Architecture.
Grounded in the use of architecture as an analytic device, Forensic Architecture has in recent years developed a host of new evidentiary methods that respond to our changing media landscape – exemplified in the widespread availability of digital recording equipment, satellite imaging and platforms for data sharing – and propose new modes of open-source, citizen-led evidence gathering and activism.
Forensic Architecture has worked closely with communities affected by acts of social and political violence, alongside NGOs, human rights groups, activists, and media organisations. Their investigations have provided decisive evidence in a number of legal cases, and contested accounts given by state authorities, leading to military, parliamentary and UN inquiries.
Counter Investigations marks the beginning of a long term collaboration between the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Forensic Architecture. The exhibition and this ongoing partnership exemplifies the Institute of Contemporary Arts’ intent to foster and explore new modes of civil practice operating across the fields of art, architecture and activism.
[Institute of Contemporary Arts]
Perspectives
From the Murder of Halit Yozgat
Kassel, Germany, 6 April 2006
On 6 April 2006, 21-year-old Halit Yozgat was murdered in his family run internet café in Kassel, Germany. His was the ninth of ten racist murders committed in Germany between 2000 and 2007 by a neo-Nazi group known as the National Socialist Underground (NSU). At the time of the killing Andreas Temme, an agent of the German domestic intelligence service (Verfassungsschutz), was present in the café. Temme claimed not to have witnessed the murder.
Within the 77 square metres of the internet café, and the 9 minutes 26 seconds during which the incident unfolded, different actors – members of migrant communities, a state employee and the murderers – were positioned in relation to each other in a manner yet to be made clear, but one whose implications bear great political significance. This unit of space and time stands as a microcosm of the social and political controversy known as the ‘NSU Complex’.
Commissioned by Unraveling the NSU Complex, a Germany-wide alliance of anti-racism activists, Forensic Architecture’s investigation became possible when hundreds of documents from the Hessen police investigation of the murder – reports, witness depositions, photographs, and computer and phone logs – were leaked at the end of 2015.
One of the most important pieces of evidence in this leak was a video of a police re-enactment performed by Andreas Temme. Such re-enactments are often ritualistic events forming part of an admission or confession, denoting justice fulfilled. In Forensic Architecture’s investigation the re-enactment is treated not only as a representation of an event, but an event in itself; a potential crime – of perjury and misrepresentation – in its own right.
Within a reconstructed real-scale physical model of the internet café – the exact dimensions of which are marked here on a black carpet – Forensic Architecture re-enacted this re-enactment in order to examine Temme’s testimony, while also carrying out further tests to analyse the threshold of sensory perception. A video presented here shows moments from this process of re-enactment.
The video triptych 77sqm_9:26min presents Forensic Architecture’s full analysis of the events surrounding Halit Yozgat’s murder. This investigation established that Temme’s testimony was untruthful, opening up to larger questions regarding the involvement of German state agencies with radical right-wing groups. As the NSU trial approaches its conclusion in 2018, the truth of the murder – and above all, Temme’s presence at the scene – remains obscured.
The mural presented here charts the events related to the production, presentation and subsequent contestation of Forensic Architecture’s analysis across multiple forums: press conferences, cultural institutions, public demonstrations, two parliamentary inquiries and a criminal court. In each of these forums, Forensic Architecture was obliged to defend its evidence according to different rules and conventions. The complexity of this flow diagram traces the indeterminate nature of counter forensics, its methods, limitations and points of impact.
[Institute of Contemporary Arts]
Part of Counter Investigations by Forensic Architecture (March-May 2018).
Forensic Architecture is both the name of the agency established in 2010, and a form of investigative practice into state violence and human rights violations that traverses architectural, journalistic and legal fields, and shifts between critical reflections and tactical interventions.
Counter Investigations presents a selection of recent investigations undertaken by the agency into incidents occurring in different contexts worldwide. In parallel, the exhibition outlines five key concepts that raise related historical, theoretical and technological questions. Continuing to be explored in an accompanying series of public seminars, these investigations and propositions add up to a Short Course in Forensic Architecture.
Grounded in the use of architecture as an analytic device, Forensic Architecture has in recent years developed a host of new evidentiary methods that respond to our changing media landscape – exemplified in the widespread availability of digital recording equipment, satellite imaging and platforms for data sharing – and propose new modes of open-source, citizen-led evidence gathering and activism.
Forensic Architecture has worked closely with communities affected by acts of social and political violence, alongside NGOs, human rights groups, activists, and media organisations. Their investigations have provided decisive evidence in a number of legal cases, and contested accounts given by state authorities, leading to military, parliamentary and UN inquiries.
Counter Investigations marks the beginning of a long term collaboration between the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Forensic Architecture. The exhibition and this ongoing partnership exemplifies the Institute of Contemporary Arts’ intent to foster and explore new modes of civil practice operating across the fields of art, architecture and activism.
[Institute of Contemporary Arts]