Hum Homework #8 and #9

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As part of an exhibition at Miami Dade College’s art museum, Forensic Architecture planned to examine the treatment of migrant children at a nearby facility. The pandemic is only one reason that never happened.

By Colin Moynihan

Jan. 11, 2021

If one vital function of art is to shake things up, look no further

than an exhibition last year at the Museum of Art and Design at

Miami Dade College in Florida.

It was the first survey in the United States of work by Forensic

Architecture, a London-based research group known for using

three-dimensional renderings of buildings and streetscapes to

investigate potential human rights violations and other incidents.

The group had examined, for example, the fatal shooting of a

Palestinian teenager by an Israeli border guard, evidence of the

Russian military presence in eastern Ukraine and U.S. drone

strikes in Pakistan.

Now, as part of the exhibition, Forensic Architecture planned to use

the small museum as a staging area for an investigation of the

nearby Homestead Emergency Care Shelter.

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The privately run, but federally funded, facility had come under

intense criticism from human rights activists and others. It had

been used by the U.S. government to hold unaccompanied migrant

children and was faulted in reports filed in federal court for its

noisy and crowded conditions.

“This exhibition is an occasion to launch a joint investigation with

local groups into human rights violations in the Homestead

detention center,” Forensic Architecture’s founder, Eyal Weizman,

said in a statement read aloud at the exhibition’s opening in

February.

But what became evident is that, even though the museum was a

known showcase for risk-taking, socially progressive art, its role as

a platform for investigation was far from fully embraced by the

college’s leadership.

“We were blindsided last night,” the college’s executive director of

cultural affairs wrote to its interim president, “by the unexpected

and inaccurate announcement of a partnership with FA to

investigate the detention center that was not ran by nor approved

by either the museum or the college leadership.”

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Documents obtained by The New York Times under a Freedom of

Information request indicate that, actually, officials at the college

and the museum had been told of plans for the museum to host

events in conjunction with the exhibition that would lay the

groundwork for such an investigation. Language to that effect was

in a news release sent out by the museum months before the

opening of the show, called “Forensic Architecture: True to Scale.”

And college and museum officials had been provided a copy of Mr.

Weizman’s remarks a day before they were delivered.

But officials at the museum and the college, which receives state

and federal funding, said in interviews that they became concerned

that it appeared they had signed on to sponsor an investigation.

By the time the exhibition closed in March, because of the

pandemic, the college had scaled back a plan to host programming

that directly focused on the investigation. Forensic Architecture

complained strongly but without success. Ultimately, the college

told the curator who had coordinated the exhibition, Sophie

Landres, that her contract would not be renewed.

“All of a sudden this was like a big snowball,” the museum’s

executive director and chief curator, Rina Carvajal, said in an

interview. “It was getting so complicated.”

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The idea for the show had originated with Ms. Carvajal, who

turned it over to Ms. Landres, a curator who had previously taught

arts administration at Columbia University’s Teachers College. The

museum Ms. Carvajal runs is affiliated with the Miami college, a

part of Florida’s state system; the school has grown tremendously

in the past 20 years and has an enrollment of 100,000 students, the

vast majority of them people of color.

The exhibition included a number of examples of Forensic

Architecture’s work, including an investigation of a fatal shooting

by the police in Chicago and an examination of a former Israeli

soldier’s account of having beaten a Palestinian man in 2014.

For Forensic Architecture, Miami offered proximity to the facility

in Homestead, Fla., about 40 miles away, where the for-profit

corporation that ran the center took in more than $1 million a day

to house children. Those operations ceased in August 2019.

Mr. Weizman said in an email that he planned to work with

academics, researchers, human rights advocates, students and

others to interview people who had visited the prison, create a

model of the facility, measure sound from a nearby air reserve base

and examine whether the children had been exposed to toxins.

Ms. Landres said that Ms. Carvajal approved a proposal in

September 2019 that listed the investigation as a central element,

something Ms. Carvajal denied during an interview with The

Times. Funding for the exhibition was provided by the John S. and

James L. Knight Foundation as well as the state of Florida and the

local county.

The museum’s grant application to the Knight Foundation, which

Ms. Landres said was approved by Ms. Carvajal, mentioned the

investigative component, saying the show would include an

“embedded study center for learning about Forensic Architecture’s

methodologies and using their techniques to investigate the

Homestead Child Detention Center.”

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In October 2019, Natalia Crujeiras, the college’s executive director

of cultural affairs, began asking, as a matter of balance, that the

exhibition’s public programming include reviews of how

technology had been used to examine human rights issues in Cuba

and Venezuela “in addition to the local focus on the Homestead

detention center,” according to an email she sent Ms. Landres.

“We need to be mindful that although the College promotes

academic and artistic freedom, this exhibit has controversial

elements in our current political environment,” Ms. Crujeiras

wrote. “While my aim is to respect and support your curatorial

vision, I also believe it is in our best interest to find a way to

include some exploration of Cuba and Venezuela to generate a

balance.”

Months later, she sent an email that noted that including material

on the Caribbean and Latin American countries would help “to

properly serve and tailor to the interest and demographics of our

diverse communities.”

Matters became more complicated in February as the exhibition

neared its opening. Mr. Weizman could not obtain a visa to enter

the United States to attend. Officials at the U.S. Embassy in London

told him that an algorithm had identified an unspecified security

threat related to him.

On the night of the opening, his exclusion was reported by The

Times and by The Miami Herald, which also reported that Forensic

Architecture was scheduled to start an investigation of Homestead

“in partnership” with the museum.

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Ms. Crujeiras then wrote her “blindsided” email to the college’s

interim president, Rolando Montoya. Hours later she wrote Ms.

Carvajal, directing her to “correct” language on the museum

website that said it would host events “laying the groundwork for

an investigation of the alleged crimes occurring within a nearby

child migrant detention center.” She said the language, which was

removed, was “confusing and basically an inaccurate description of

what our intention with the public programs has been.”

In a recent interview, Ms. Crujeiras said she had expected that, as

part of the public programming, there would be a discussion of how

Forensic Architecture’s techniques could be used to examine

events at Homestead, but added: “I don’t believe we ever agreed to

do an investigation.”

Now it was Forensic’s turn to object. Mr. Weizman sent a three-

page letter to the museum, calling what he described as the

reversal of its plans “extremely troubling.” He said Forensic

Architecture had agreed to an exhibition at the college “largely

because MOAD was committed to producing a robust collaboration

with local partners on the Homestead investigation.”

Ms. Carvajal responded that the museum, as part of a public

academic institution, “must remain impartial” and had neither “the

authority nor the credentials to be a collaborator in any type of

investigation.”

Though the museum’s news release discussed hosting events

related to a Homestead investigation, college and museum officials

said the public programming had yet to be “finalized.” Ms. Landres

disputed that contention. She said the college simply grew timid

about what it had signed up for after Mr. Weizman could not obtain

a visa.

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“The notion that I suddenly needed to go through an extra formal

approval process for the public programming / Homestead project

only came about after Eyal was denied entry to the U.S.,” she said

in an email.

In early March, Ms. Carvajal canceled an upcoming exhibition

organized by Ms. Landres, citing the need to refocus her duties and

“the external pressure on the museum,” a measure that Ms.

Landres saw as punitive. Ms. Carvajal said in an interview that the

cancellation was not meant to punish Ms. Landres, who she said

was supposed to concentrate on creating public programming

rather than on curating shows.

When an approved schedule for the Forensic Architecture show’s

public programming was handed down on March 9 by college

officials, it differed significantly from Ms. Landres’s proposal. None

of the six panels or events were dedicated to the sort of

examination of Homestead that had been cited on the museum

website or in the news release. One was to feature a discussion of

the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Others were to review issues that had

arisen in Venezuela or Syria. The only place Homestead was

mentioned was in an opening statement that said tutorials and

panel discussions would consider how Forensic Architecture’s

methodology can help illuminate allegations of human rights

violations in Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti and at the children’s

shelter.

Three days later, the exhibition and the museum were closed to the

public because of the coronavirus.

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Ms. Landres said in an interview that she suggested converting the

exhibition into virtual programming but was turned down, an

assertion Ms. Carvajal denied. Some of the $120,000 in grant

money from the Knight Foundation was then used, with the

foundation’s blessing, to create a different online experience, “I

Remember Miami,” in which people shared memories of the city.

“We want to create content that is meaningful, that creates unity,

that reminds all of us of the beautiful moments in our city,” Ms.

Crujeiras said in an online discussion of the arts in Miami. She

described the Forensic exhibition to viewers as “sophisticated,

beautiful,” but said it had “very complex elements” that made it

difficult to present online during a pandemic.

Ms. Landres said that as disagreements over the Forensic

exhibition deepened, Ms. Carvajal falsely accused her of acting

without authorization and of running over the budget for “True to

Scale.” Then in May, Ms. Landres said, Ms. Crujeiras told her that

she was being put on paid leave and that her contract, which

expired in June 2020, would not be renewed.

College and museum officials said they could not discuss the

rationale for not renewing the contract, calling it a personnel

matter.

In an email to The Times, Ms. Landres said she thought that the

effort to “balance” the Forensic exhibition was designed to placate

some of the college’s more conservative trustees. But one trustee,

Marcell Felipe, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican,

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What Did Museum Sign Up For: Exhibition or Investigation?

An exhibition of Forensic Architecture’s work at Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art and Design led to a debate over whether the institution should play any role in one of the group’s investigations. Miami Dade College

Forensic Architecture, a research group, is known for work that explores possible human rights violations and other incidents using data and three-dimensional renderings. Gladys Hernando

The Museum of Art and Design is housed in Freedom Tower, a landmark building in downtown Miami. Miami Dade College

As part of its work, Forensic Architecture often uses data to reconstruct bullet trajectories and sight lines. Miami Dade College

An application from the museum for a Knight Foundation grant had mentioned Forensic Architecture’s plan to investigate the Homestead shelter in conjunction with the exhibit.

Forensic Architecture had planned to examine conditions at a federally funded shelter in Homestead that had held migrant children and had become the subject of intense criticism in 2019. Eve Edelheit for The New York Times

One of Forensic Architecture’s investigations examined and reconstructed the account of a former Israeli soldier who said he had beaten a Palestinian civilian in 2014. Forensic Architecture/Breaking the Silence

One aspect of the investigation into the former soldier’s account involved creating a 3D model of the alleyway on the West Bank where he said the beating took place. Forensic Architecture/Breaking the Silence

ART & DESIGN PLAY THE CROSSWORD AccountART & DESIGN | What Did Museum Sign Up For: Exhibition or Investigation?

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Marcell Felipe, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican,

said he had not been aware of the show.

“I don’t think it was ever discussed” by the board, he said.

Now back in New York, Ms. Landres said the museum had failed to

live up to its ideals and to the commitment it made to the group

whose work it was exhibiting.

“They removed any possibility that we would actually arrive closer

to the truth about Homestead,” she said. “That’s political

censorship and it’s also a form of artistic censorship.”

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