Art Office

In 2009, British undercover agent Mark Stone was unmasked. For seven years he had infiltrated the environmental protest movement undetected in Nottinghamshire, at one of Britain's largest coal-fired power stations. Without cover, his research collapsed. The protest community was left torn by his deception. “I was lying because it was my job to lie. I'm not a dishonest person,” said Stone, whose real name was Kennedy. Jan Adriaans chose this fascinating person to make a film about. “The Agent Provocateur is a person employed by the police or secret service who infiltrates an organization suspected of criminal, governmental or terrorist activities. Protest groups are also included in this. The aim is to incite the members to commit illegal acts, thereby creating legal grounds for their arrest.”

In a short film, Adriaans wanted to subtly compare Kennedy's infiltration techniques with mimicry and parasitic behavior from biology. Adriaans often uses biology, natural compulsions, to explain human behaviour. In his previous film project Swarming Chants he showed how collective behaviour, driven by animal swarm intelligence, can generate chants like in football stadiums. Adriaans' work encompasses film, photography and performance, in addition he writes and acts as a curator. “In my work I reveal the fallacy of the idea of ​​man as an independently operating entity or free subject. By drawing a parallel with the animal, the limitations to which we are subject become clearer.” The R&D committee thought it was an interesting plan with a thorough design and good development for professional practice.

Adriaans took online courses in screenwriting, non-fiction writing and essayism and immersed himself in the infiltration history of the British police. He began an essay-like script about how the activist Kennedy's identity almost took over from the police officer, just as species in nature sometimes do to survive. At the time, Adriaans was stuck in Australia due to lockdowns, so he decided to shoot the film there, although that did change the character of the film: “I am moving away from a historical portrayal of the case. Now it will become more speculative,” he writes halfway through the trial. For the sound of the film he works together with Charly van Rest in Rotterdam. He hopes to complete this in July 2022.