The performance Ouster Remixed is part of and a companion to the project Headquarters: Pathology of an Ouster. The script remixes critical historical writing about the 1953 CIA-designed coup d'etat in Iran culled from a variety of sources with personal narratives of participating performers. It is written for six voices in two versions, one in English and another that mixes French and English. The project engages participants from diverse backgrounds whose histories are marked by colonial interventions through a workshop process that focuses on historical research and learning as well as personal empowerment.. This piece was first staged at A Space Gallery at the opening of a solo show, Time Lapsed, in March 2013 with participants late activist Naomi Binder Wall, late activist and photojournalist Ali Mustafa, academic Jen Cypher, cultural worker Nara Nadesan, activist and academic Niloofar Golkar and storyteller Sarah Abusarar.
It was restaged in MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) in November 2013 at the opening of The Idea of Freedom, with artists Nika Khanjani, Janique Grenier and Tatiana Castellanous, poet Ehab Lotayef, social justice activist and writer Berlin Reed, and civic activist Nima Machouf. Both performances were livestreamed, and recorded on video.
This work can be re-staged as a live, site-responsive performance with new participants. Full videos of the 2013 performances in English and in English-French are available for single-channel exhibition or screening.