‘Evidence’ would seem opposed to fiction—strictly a matter of observational photographs, government documents, statistical calculation, forensics and courtroom testimony. Yet what happens in the absence of such proof? When evidence of state violence is suppressed or simply ignored, culture may be able to fill in the gaps, holding weight long after any statute of limitations.

Please join us on the opening weekend of Safe Zone for a discussion between novelist and lawyer Shankari Chandran and filmmaker and human rights lawyer Visakesa Chandrasekaram on the unexpected role of speculation in bearing witness to atrocity, moderated by lawyer, community organiser and broadcaster Thinesh Thillainadarajah. This conversation takes cues from Kulendran Thomas’s AI-assisted paintings of the 2009 Mullivaikkal Massacre, which attempt to give visual form to the largely unphotographed event. Drawing from the artist’s experiment, Chandran and Chandrasekaram consider how fictionalised evidence may bring us closer to a collective understanding of mass traumatic events.

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