Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes

We were delighted, with the support of the British Council, to send artists William Bock, Abi Ighodaro and Helen O’Keefe to London in April to attend The British East India Company on Trial, a collaboration between academic, writer, lawyer and activist Radha D’Souza and artist and propaganda researcher Jonas Staal. This trial was part of the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC), which stages public hearings in immersive installations functioning as a court, to prosecute intergenerational climate crimes committed by states and corporations acting together.

The British East India Company on Trial interrogated witnesses regarding the crimes committed by the British East India Company, highlighting the interconnectedness of colonial and climate crimes that continue to shape our devastating present and future. In this court, plants that played a key role in the colonial and industrial force of the British Crown and the East India Company – Indigo, Papaver, Cotton, Jute and Sugarcane – act as evidence and non-human witnesses alongside evidence presented by expert witnesses, and the audience serve as jury. Putting the British East India Company on trial, 425 years after its founding and 168 years after its dissolution in 1857, expands notions of intergenerational justice. The CICC provides evidence of past and present climate crimes by looking at their impact on modern life, as well as on planetary life in the future.

Until the 24th April, an installation with selected materials from the tribunals will be available in Ambika P3, Marylebone Road London, in combination with the CICC School, an ongoing programme of lectures, workshops, screenings and trainings to deepen the relationship between artistic and legal imaginaries in the struggle for climate justice.

We look forward to working with Jonas and Radha to share the work of the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes in Dublin later in the year. We are grateful to the British Council for supporting the artists’ travel.