Paper short abstract:

This paper asks the question: what forms of solidarity and intersubjectivity are possible with people accused of terrorism. It draws on a theatrical project around the figure of Ali Aarras, to inquire into how theater both makes and unmakes solidarities and acts as a form of repair.

Paper long abstract:

This paper asks the question: what forms of solidarity and intersubjectivity are possible with people are accused of terrorism. It draws on an ethnographic study among families and friends and activists mobilised around the figure of Ali Aarass, a Belgian-Moroccan who was accused in 2008 of providing logistical support to a terrorist network. While he and his environment always contested the accusations and claimed his innocence, the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels suspended the solidarity work that had been going on. Some members of the group transitioned into a theatrical form and created what would become “le choeur de Ali Aarrass” (the choir of Ali Aarrass). In this paper, which draws on participant observation and interviews with the group between 2018 and 2020, I will describe how solidarity works through a sensorial and aesthetic engagement, which I describe here as affective solidarities. Yet the medium of theater also implied a remythification and aesthetisation of Ali, which eventually lead to frictions. I take these frictions as a starting point to reflect on how theater, as a medium of representation, both makes and unmakes solidarities and acts as a form of repair.