Exhibition: CICC London – The British East India Company on Trial
Visit the event page to read more about the cases for each day and the organisations presenting evidence.
Ambika P3, London
In April 2025, Sepertine Galleries resented a new iteration of the CICC in London entitled, The British East India Company on Trial. It was in London that the East India Company was founded in 1600, and where the corporate entity would subsequently shape the city in its own interests and image. The court will interrogate 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.
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 EIC, endure as legal, institutional, and ideological frameworks for extractive capitalism and imperialism, perpetuating ecological collapse.
Ambika P3
This newly commissioned chapter of the CICC consists of a specially appointed court constructed within the former concrete hall of Ambika P3 in London. Ambika P3 is a space for contemporary art and architecture, developed from the vast former concrete construction hall at the University of Westminster. Dedicated to innovation, experimentation and learning, the space operates as a laboratory and meeting place for practitioners, industry and academia.
Ambika P3 – University of Westminster
35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS
London, United Kingdom
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Exhibition Hand-Out for CICC London
Radha D'Souza and Jonas Staal, Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes: The British East-India Company on Trial, 2025. Commissioned by Serpentine Ecologies. Photos: Ruben Hamelink
Public Hearings
Case I. The East India Company and the British Crown: Partners in Crimes Against Ecologies and Communities
CICC School
Following the hearings, the court will transition into the CICC School. The School is a series of talks, workshops, assemblies, screenings, guided walks, and performances designed to activate the CICC installation at Ambika P3 and across London, providing additional context and examining the threads of research that connect intergenerational climate crimes to our present.
The programmes involve activists, artists and academics focusing on the role of alternative artistic and legal imaginaries in climate justice struggles.
Project Credits
Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes: The British East India Company on Trial is a project by Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal commissioned and produced by Serpentine Ecologies.
The CICC is made in partnership with Framer Framed, Amsterdam (long term partner), Law Development & Conflict Research Group, CREAM, Ambika P3, University of Westminster, Creative Scotland, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and Create Ireland.
With special thanks to Mondriaan Fund.
Research Assistants: Daniel Voskoboynik and Muhammed Ahmedullah
Coordinator and Producer, Studio Jonas Staal: Nadine Gouders
Architect: Paul Kuipers
Graphic Design: Remco van Bladel
Photo and video documentation: Ruben Hamelink
Construction, Studio KunstWerk: Michael Klinkenberg and Niklas van Woerden
An Ecological Futurisms initiative at CREAM, Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, University of Westminster. Led by Neal White, Matthias Kispert, Roshini Kempadoo.
Venue managers, Ambika P3: Niall Carter and Eleftherios Dimoulias
The inaugural edition of CICC (Amsterdam, 2021) was commissioned by Framer Framed, Amsterdam. The CICC – The Law on Trial (Seoul, 2022) was produced by Drifting Curriculum and Arts Council Korea (ARKO) and Framer Framed, Amsterdam. The CICC – Extinction Wars (Gwangju, 2023) was co-commissioned by the Gwangju Biennale Pavilion Project and Framer Framed, Amsterdam, hosted by Gwangju Museum of Art in partnership with Arts Council Korea (ARKO), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands), Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AfK), the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Korea, and the Mondriaan Fund.
Curated and produced by: Lucia Pietroiusti, Daisy Gould, Isobel Peyton-Jones, Serpentine, with Eva Speight