THE COURTROOM AS A LANDSCAPE /
DE RECHTBANK ALS LANDSCHAP

A collaborative project between academic researcher Dr. Tasniem Anwar, researcher Robbin Talens, visual artist Machteld Aardse and designer Niels Schrader. They examine the question: what happens when we observe the courtroom as a landscape? Their focus are cases concerning terrorism.

INFO

The collaboration commenced in the summer of 2021, with the idea to explore the affective and material dimension of terrorism trials. In total, we have visited more than 12 Dutch terrorism trials, where more than 250 drawings were made. The offences varied from terrorism financing, membership of a terrorist organisation, and preparatory terrorist activities.

During the sittings, we would split up, Machteld making the court drawings, and Tasniem observing and writing what occurred in the trial. We had regular briefings, where we compared our notes, experiences and wrote down ideas. The cases took place in three different courts in the Netherlands: the District court of Rotterdam, the District Court of Limburg, and Justitieel Complex Schiphol.

A selection of the drawings and data was shared with the public via an exhibition in the Court of Rotterdam and Amsterdam designed by Niels Schrader.