EXHIBIT B
CONCEPT, DESIGN + DIRECTION:
BRETT BAILEY
‘Fearlessly uncompromising… Unbearable and essential’
– THE GUARDIAN
‘remarkable’ – THE TIMES, UK
‘Deeply unsettling but vital viewing’
– THE EDINBURGH REPORTER
‘terrible and magnificent’
– LE SOIR, Brussels
The dim chambers of our collective imagination are haunted by twisted representations of racial Otherness: the violent, sexualized barbarian; the scientific curiosity; the submissive victim; the Master's property.
​
A site-specific, perambulatory performance installation unpacking the multiple ways in which African people have been represented historically in order to justify theories and policies of white racial supremacy.
​
Spectators entered the performance one-by-one. The performance consisted of a sequence of 12 installations, each of which was accompanied by a text.
​
The performers were generally sourced from the city in which the work was presented. During the performance, they remained completely still, and maintained eye contact with the spectators at all times.
​
A choir of 4 singers from the Nama people of Namibia sang throughout the performance as part of the installation “Dr Fischer’s Cabinet of Curiosities”.
TOURING HISTORY 2016 Fast Forward Festival, Athens, Greece. Midwinter Festival, Talinn, Estonia. 2015 Galway Festival, Ireland. Gwangju Biennale, South Korea. Santiago a Mil International Theater Festival, Chile. 2014 Edinburgh Festival International Program, UK. The Barbican, London, UK. MOMA, Moscow, Russia. Théâtre Gérard Philipe, Paris, France. Le 104, Paris, France. Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers, France. 2013 Holland Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium. Le 104, Paris, France. Le Maillon, Strasbourg, France. Wroclaw Dialogue, Poland. 2012 Berliner Festspiele, Germany. Kunsten Festival des Arts, Brussels, Belgium. National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa. Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland. 2010 Vienna Festwochen, Austria. Theaterspektakel, Braunschweig, Germany.
Portraits of the performers in each iteration of EXHIBIT B were displayed in the last room of the work. This is a selection of those portraits.
Here are a few of the articles and documents concerning EXHIBIT B and the controversy which arose in London and Paris in 2014:
A considered review of the Paris performance by British writer Michael Salu.
An article by US-South African academic Dr Megan Lewis.
A dissertation by Zimbabwean academic Pedzisai Maedza.
A letter of support for the work by 14 presenters of EXHIBIT B.
An article by Brett in response to the polemic in London, and published in The Guardian.
A statement by the cast of the London performance.
A statement by the cast of the Edinburgh performance.
An article by the French jurist and lawyer Agnes Tricoire.