I curated the exhibition 2424 - The Future of justice by trans-media artist JULIACKS, in collaboration with TAAK at Nieuw Dakota (Amsterdam), on view from 12 December 2021 until the beginning of February 2022.
In 2424, humanity forges new ways of dealing with the consequences of crime and violence. Here, we are no longer limited by ancient methods dominated by policing and incarceration. Instead, our systems centralise healing and safety.
The art works in the space range from narrative fictions about historical justice processes to abstract explorations of the specific needs and perspectives of communities and individuals. They give a voice to seventeenth century youngsters stuck within the Dutch Tuchthuizen (houses of correction) and to contemporary and future individuals dealing with the effects of violence on themselves and their communities.
Together, they open op a space for new mainstream alternatives to isolation, shame, and fear. They include the invention of platforms for accountability and mental health care, equal access to resources and methods to changing violent communal norms and values
The exhibition is part of the extended artistic research and trans-media narrative project, Transversal Scepters that we have been collaborating on since 2016. The project involves research with advocates for restorative justice, academics, archivists, prison guards, detained people and crime survivors among many others.
Within this speculative universe, Juliacks visualises how justice processes are always messy and resistant to temporal and spatial boundaries, and how they are always both a societal pursuit as well as an inner quest for everyone individually,. It is a radical reimagination of the way we view harm and healing and the routes we pursue to address it.
Photography: Lars Berg & Victoria Ushkanova