In conjunction with the New York performance biennial Performa 11, MoMA’s Department of Media and Performance Art presents the live work Combatant Status Review Tribunals, pp. 002954–003064: A Public Reading. The performance comprises a four-hour public reading of unedited transcripts from 18 Combatant Status Review Tribunals held at the U.S. military prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, between July 2004 and March 2005. During the public performance nine readers rotate through eight juridical positions. The artist group—consisting of Andrea Geyer, Sharon Hayes, Ashley Hunt, Katya Sander, and David Thorne—understands the performance as a simple yet vital gesture towards making these tribunals public. The performance corresponds with the recently acquired multichannel video installation 9 Scripts from a Nation at War, which premiered at Documenta 12 in 2007 and will be shown at MoMA from January 24 to July 30, 2012.
Organized by Sabine Breitwieser, Chief Curator, and Jenny Schlenzka, Assistant Curator for Performance, Department of Media and Performance Art.
