Judy Radul attempts to create composite art, incorporating the formats of live-action, video, installation, photograph, and audio work and pursuing her interest in pluralistic research to ponder the connection between performance and documentary records. Performance is the most important artistic element for the artist, as it directs her interest in movies, theater, and language onto works of art, enabling her to meditate on the current state of society and humankind.
Court Theatre: Trials of the Soldier Who Pleaded Guilty and The Accused Former 21st President of the Republic is part of Radul’s multimedia installation work World Rehearsal Court, which deals with the made-up setting and situations in a courtroom. When Radul saw the image of a courtroom in a newspaper article, she realized that the situation, the apparatus, and the setting were uncannily similar to those of a stage production. From that point onward, she developed an interest in the theatrical elements of courtroom situations. After researching the International Criminal Tribunal for two years, Radul has based the characters and episodes in her work on the Tribunal’s records and has documented its procedures in mock trials with seven cameras videotaping the stage. Through this process, the artist focuses her attention on the roles played by documentation and surveillance in the courtroom setting, and probes the relationship between tension and power in various scenarios, including those involving testimony, truth, and dishonesty.
