The British East India Company on Trial
1:1 Model / Court
1:1 Model / Court
Title | The Britisch East India Company on Trial (CICC)
Concept | by Radha D'Souza & Jonas Staal
Curator | Lucia Pietroiusti
Commissioned by | Serpentine Gallery
Type | 1:1 Model / Court
Date | 5-24 April 2025
Location | Serpentine Galleries at University of Westminster
Architecture | Paul Kuipers
Project Coordinator | Nadine Gouders
Photography | Ruben Hamelink
Images process | Paul Kuipers
Construction | Studio Kunstwerk
Text | Jonas Staal
The Britisch East India Company on Trial
The court 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. Non-human agents acted as evidence and witnesses in the court, in this case in the form of plants that played a pivotal role in the colonial and industrial projects of the British Crown and the East India Company.
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. It raises questions about reparations for crimes that transcend generations and examines how dissolved entities, like the British East India Company, endure as legal, institutional, and ideological frameworks for extractive capitalism and imperialism, perpetuating ecological collapse.
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