KOCHI: A courtroom unfolds not in a judicial setup but inside an art exhibition at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB). Lawyers argue petitions in all seriousness, judges weigh evidence, and testimonies examine environmental loss. The only difference: the proceedings are part of a conceptual art project that places artists in the role of witnesses.
Titled A Trilogy of Environmental Trials, the exhibition is presented under the invitations programme of the sixth edition of the KMB at the Indian Chamber of Commerce building.
Developed between 2016 and 2023, the ingenious project is conceived by the Khoj International Artists’ Association and artist Zuleikha Chaudhari, in collaboration with lawyers Anand Grover and Harish Mehla.
Structured as staged hearings involving real lawyers and retired judges, the project brings together three chapters that examine environmental justice through simulated legal proceedings.
Petitions, testimonies and arguments are presented as they would be in a courtroom, exploring how environmental damage might be understood, represented and debated.
The exhibition positions art as evidence and artists as witnesses, raising questions about the role of creative practice in documenting ecological change - can art measure environmental loss and articulate the complex ecological relationships?