Exhibit B

Ethnographic exhibitions were popular attractions for fairgrounds in the western world from the mid-19th century onwards. Eager European and American spectators flocked in masses to these ‘human zoos’ where non-westerners were put on display in mock native villages. In “Exhibit B”, South African theatre director Brett Bailey, whose company Third World Bunfight has constantly focussed on South Africa’s post-colonial present and the relationship between Africa and the western world, evokes this form of human exhibition and aligns it with contemporary experiences of exclusion. Namibian performers and African immigrants living in Berlin are subject to the gaze of spectators in a walk-through installation. The props and setting reflect European colonial history in Namibia and in the Congo states as well as contemporary migration and deportation.
The works of the “Exhibit” series deal with the colonial history of different European countries and began with “Exhibit A”, produced by Wiener Festwochen (Vienna) and the Festival Theaterformen (Braunschweig).