The Theatre of Operations. Ammar, Interrogated. Portrait Parlé

Ongoing investigation - Live drawing session
A message from Yasmina Reggad:
“I want visitors to bring their favourite pen, their paint, their drawing books, their brushes and canvas, their grandma easels, and… their imagination. (...). And last, I want visitors to please come dressed in their favourite artist outfit.”
Undercover agent Ammar is infiltrated by Yasmina Reggad inside a public event. A secret informant who is committed to follow Yasmina Reggad’s instructions, Ammar attends all the activities organised during the gathering, in the same way as the general audience. Ammar resembles others. They watch, listen, take notes, clap their hands, they eat, they drink, they dance and they frequently join smokers outside the venue. Like so many others. Sometimes they yawn, they get bored, and they even fall asleep. Yet Ammar is conducting an undercover investigation.
Ammar’s daily presence echoes the common argument of supporters of mass surveillance: “if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear”. Ammar’s daily presence recalls everyday mistrust of/within past and present militant movements. Consequently, Ammar becomes both the director and the actor in ‘The Theatre of Operations’ that Yasmina Reggad has established inside the venue. The undercover agent in the performance muddies the waters as they take in turn the roles of playwright, performer, witness, agitator and producer of information.
At the same time, a team of allies are conducting a week-long counter-investigation. The content of their interviews and cross-examinations will feed into the live model drawing session to draw up the many possible sketches of Ammar. The durational performance ‘The Theatre of Operations. Ammar, Undercover’ engages with the historical interconnection between performance and happenings, and activism and surveillance. The final performance, ‘Ammar, interrogated. Portrait Parlé’ is based on the mechanisms of propagation of rumours and bears witness to the practices of denunciation and forensics, information gathering, and police sketches in judicial investigations.
Concept, creation, script, research and direction: Yasmina Reggad • Performers: Ammar, Yasmina Reggad & a group of anonymous allies and counter-agents (A, R, H & P) • Sound creation: Yasmina Reggad, a group of anonymous and counter-agents (A, R, H & P) & Salim Bayri • Production: Yasmina Reggad and (A)WAKE for New Radicalisms • Past collaborators: Hiros (financial administration), La Cantine Syrienne de Montreuil (Co-Production) • Dedicated to: all comrades across the globe who continue to resist and stand in solidarity with those of us who are oppressed.