Jason File

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Single-channel video installation with war crimes tribunal witness examination; period television set; objects from historical museum collection

Dimensions variable; video duration 2 hr. 3 min. 42 sec. (web excerpt 12 min.)

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Displayed at the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo as part of the Reconciliations 2 exhibition of 2018-2019, curated by Elma Hodžić. The curatorial text accompanying Exactitude (VII) is as follows:

“This installation uses video documentation of the artist’s own cross-examination of a defense witness during the trial of Ratko Mladić at the ICTY in The Hague, where the artist served as a prosecutor. The witness—an UNPROFOR engineering commander from Ukraine based in Sarajevo from 1993 to 1994—gives testimony for the defense that appears to minimize the suffering of Sarajevo residents during that period. During the cross-examination, File confronts the witness with information that contradicts his story, referring to shortages of water, gas and power that caused Sarajevo residents to use objects such as improvised stoves and trolleys with water tanks to survive.

The placement of the trial proceedings among museum artifacts, including the very objects discussed in court, raises questions about their interconnected legal and historical relationship, and highlights how the objects in the museum collection may represent double forms of evidence – not only as signs of trauma and resilience, but also as silent testimonial witnesses to the events that occurred in their proximity.

Normally one would listen to an international trial by choosing an audio channel corresponding to a selected language—here, the artist has metaphorically removed the walls of each interpreter’s booth, allowing each language to be heard simultaneously. We hear a cacophony of voices that may suggest the many perspectives that emerge when attempting to describe and to prove facts about historical events.

The title is inspired by Jorge-Luis Borges’s short story “On Exactitude in Science”, about a fictional map of the world on the same scale as the world, which hints at the artist’s interest in exploring how performance, such as his courtroom appearances, could function as readymades in the tradition of artists like Marcel Duchamp.”