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. At the Museum of Modern Art, it was staged in two different settings, in 2011 under the Bauhaus staircase, and in 2012 in the Marron Atrium, both at the second floor of the Museum.

During the reading nine performers rotate through eight juridical positions, including that of the Detainee, the Tribunal President, two Tribunal Members, the Recorder representing the U.S. government, and a Personal Representative acting as an advisor to the Detainee. The artist group—consisting of Andrea Geyer, Sharon Hayes, Ashley Hunt, Katya Sander, and David Thorne—understands the performance as a simple yet urgent gesture towards making these tribunals public. By presenting the transcripts word for word the readings offer insight into the complicated geo-political landscape in Afghanistan and Pakistan between 2001 and 2005 and expose the contradictory and problematic processes the U.S. military has used in capturing, detaining and classifying so-called “enemy combatants.”

The performance corresponds to the video installation 9 Scripts from a Nation at War, which premiered at Documenta 12 in 2007 and was shown in the Media Gallery at MoMA after it was acquired by the Museum.