0.3
VOIDS IN EARTH
2024
Forensic Architecture Studio
Investigative Report
5-Channel Video Projection
“Interruptions”
26.09.–03.10.2024
Centre for Research Architecture
Centre for Research Architecture
Goldsmiths, University of London
The “voids in earth” left behind by Italian colonial gold mines in Eritrea bear witness to the toxic legacy of land and labour exploitation. The enduring impact of these extractive practices has created not only spatial voids in the soil but also deep structural gaps and lasting scars in the social fabric, now fertile ground for a new gold rush led by multinational corporations. While shareholder reports celebrate these voids as evidence of gold, this investigation serves as a counter-memory, offering an alternative perspective for interpreting contemporary material flows, the (im)mobility of people, and the persistence of global racial injustice. Beyond the framework of “victim and perpetrator”of mechanical justice systems where violence is confined to a discrete beginning and end, this investigation examines rhyzomatically the spatial, legal, material and structural forces, events and conditions that enable contemporary extractive violence.
In November 2014, three Eritrean refugees and former conscripts of the Eritrean military sued Nevsun Resources, a Canadian mining company, for complicity in the use of forced labor, slavery, torture, and crimes against humanity at the Bisha Mine in Eritrea. The presence of nine judges in the courtroom signified the stakes of the case, particularly since Canada is home to 75% of the world’s mining and exploration companies. After a six-year trial, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2020 that customary international law is to be part of Canadian common law, making it possible for a private Canadian corporation to be held liable for breaches of international law committed outside of Canada. However, in the same year Nevsun settled with the plaintiffs for an undisclosed amount of money, after it had sold the company to a chinese firm for 1.4 billion dollars. Subsequently, the case was closed and the international buzz and human rights reports began to wane, even as the multinational corporations presence in Eritrea continued to grow.
Between 2011 and 2013, Switzerland's Metalor Technologies imported 22 tons of gold from a mine in Eritrea, valued at nearly 400 million Swiss Francs. However, on September 15, 2017, the refinery denied any responsibility for the situation in Eritrea, stating: "Metalor neither had nor has any presence in Eritrea." This statement indirectly suggests that the physical distance between the Swiss refinery and Eritrea exempts the company from any causal link to the violence occurring in the region.
As recent debates in the Swiss parliament over deporting Eritreans to Rwanda intensify, Italian delegates push forward Prime Minister Meloni’s plans on migration and energy with a visit to the port of Massawa. Meanwhile, as large-scale mining projects expand trace and enlarge the voids left by abandoned Italian colonial mines, this investigation reveals that, despite Switzerland formally halting imports of Eritrean gold in 2013, the metal may still be infiltrating the Swiss market through transit countries like the UAE. To put things in perspective, between 2012 and 2022, the UAE imported 2,569 tonnes of smuggled African gold, valued at around USD 115.3 billion. In 2019, the UAE was Switzerland’s largest gold exporter.
to be updated, OCT 2024