Maps of Defiance

Maps of Defiance is a project presented by the V&A as the official UK Pavilion for the XXII Milan Triennale. Commissioned by British Council and in collaboration with Art Jameel, the exhibition presents the work of the Turner Prize nominated interdisciplinary research agency Forensic Architecture and their ongoing collaboration with NGO Yazda, the global organisation for the Yazidi people. The project is concerned with a case of genocide committed by Islamic State (ISIL) against the Yazidi people in northern Iraq. Presented in Milan are the initial stages of a wider project, which is still an active investigation. Paul Bailey was invited by Natalie Kane, curator of Digital Design at the V&A, to join the team as the exhibition and graphic designer – and to extend his research into the destabilised nature of reading and watching in and through new information environments.

In response to Forensic Architecture’s on-the-ground practice, Paul conducted research into Bauhaus architect Herbert Bayer’s ‘mobile eye’. When documenting the destroyed sites in Sinjar Forensic Architecture asked the training team to take photographs at different angles, and different heights, something we found mirrored in Bayer’s ‘point of view’ constructions. Bayer’s approach, which he explored extensively in his design of the German pavilion (‘Section Allemande’) for the 1930 salon of the Société des artistes décorateurs in Paris, prioritises the ways in which we physically see and process information, which isn’t necessarily linear or on one visual plane. For Maps of Defiance at the Triennale, the design extends from this thought. The design of the exhibition set out to enable visitors to see how different techniques and lines of enquiry are combined in order for Forensic Architecture to analyse sites of violence and destruction. What resulted was a series of ‘context panels’ that homed in on specific points of consideration, from the architectural and religious history of the Yazidi and the events of 2014, to specific examples of digital reconstruction and cultural archiving. Two commissioned films unpack the how-to methods and analytical frameworks that Forensic Architecture have constructed. Also, running through the centre of the exhibition space is a specially designed structure that presents the tools used by the training teams to capture the data – camera, bottle rig, kite and a drone – alongside documentation of them in use and the corresponding data shared with and employed by Forensic Architecture.

Architect: ALTOFRAGILE
Design Team: Forensic Architecture with Yazda

• https://www.triennale.org/en/events/map-...
• https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/design-and-so...
• https://design.britishcouncil.org/blog/2...