9 Scripts from a Nation at War
MoMA
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 708-9400
MoMA presents 9 Scripts from a Nation at War, a recently acquired video installation in The Yoshiko and Akio Morita Media Gallery.
In April MoMA stages the related performance Combatant Status Review Tribunals, PP. 002954-003064: a public reading, and presents a talk with the artists.
9 Scripts from a Nation at War
A collaboration by Andrea Geyer, Sharon Hayes, Ashley Hunt, Katya Sander, and David Thorne
Exhibition
January 25–August 6, 2012
The Yoshiko and Akio Morita Gallery
Combatant Status Review Tribunals, pp. 002954–003064: A Public Reading
Performance
April 27, 2012, 2–6pm and April 28, 2012, 12–4pm
The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium
Andrea Geyer, Sharon Hayes, Ashley Hunt, Katya Sander, and David Thorne
Monday, April 30, 2012, 7pm
Artists’ talk presented as part of Modern Mondays.
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2
9 Scripts from a Nation at War
A collaboration by Andrea Geyer, Sharon Hayes, Ashley Hunt, Katya Sander, and David Thorne
In wartime, as public opinion is carefully molded by governments, mass media, and political parties, artists can create spaces that allow for speech, performance, critical thinking, and responses that are otherwise not permitted. 9 Scripts from a Nation at War (2007) responds to conditions and questions that have arisen since the invasion of Iraq by United States military forces in March 2003. The installation was created between 2004 and 2007 as a collaborative project for documenta 12.
The work is structured around the roles, created by war, that individuals fill, enact, speak from, or resist.
Displayed as projections and at seated viewing stations in a non-narrative structure, each of the 10 videos shows a different perspective on the involvement of U.S. troops in global war zones—represented by the roles of citizen, blogger, correspondent, veteran, student, actor, interviewer, lawyer, detainee, and source. Using both documentary and constructed footage, the scripts are performed by actors and non-actors: some speak their own words, and some recite the words of others. The extensive archive of video performances addresses the implications of war for individual and collective experience and the role of language in structures of power during times of conflict.
Andrea Geyer (German, b. 1971), Sharon Hayes (American, b. 1970), Ashley Hunt (American, b. 1970), Katya Sander (Danish, b. 1970), and David Thorne (American, b. 1960) have collaborated in several multidisciplinary formats over the last decade. Portions of the presented videos were shot during a Vera List Center Fellowship. The production of the work was supported by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, New York.
Organized by Sabine Breitwieser, Chief Curator, with Martin Hartung, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance Art, The Museum of Modern Art.
Combatant Status Review Tribunals, pp. 002954–003064: A Public Reading, the performance staged on April 27 and 28, 2012, 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.
Organized by Sabine Breitwieser, Chief Curator, Ana Janevski, Associate Curator, and Jill A. Samuels, Performance Producer, Department of Media and Performance Art as part of the performance series Words in the World, April 16 through May 12, 2012 at MoMA.
Modern Mondays is organized by the Department of Film and the Department of Media and Performance Art. Modern Mondays is made possible by Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro. Additional support is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.
