Brett Bailey / Third World Bunfight : Exhibit B
▻http://vooruit.be/en/show/detail/5921/Brett_Bailey_Third_World_Bunfight
Is it a show or an exhibition? ‘Exhibit B’ by South African Brett Bailey is based on the ‘human zoos’ that exhibited people from Africa or Asia – such as the one in the World Exhibition of 1913 in Ghent. During the colonial period, such exhibitions were often dictated by politics. They were a way of demonstrating the inferiority of people and, by extension, that it was acceptable to treat them like slaves.
Bailey’s company, Third World Bunfight, considers art to be a mechanism for engaging people in social debate and as a way of shedding light on misunderstood stories or events. ‘Exhibit B’ invites visitors to walk through a series of tableaux vivants featuring real people. The confrontation is serene, but hard, and forces visitors to look both themselves, and the ‘other’, straight in the eye.
Wouter Hillaert in De Standaard: “It’s a question of inescapable humanity. The artworks breathe. They stare at you, and keep on staring. It is in that inverted gaze that the exhibition becomes a performance, and the performance a confrontation. Words aren’t needed. There’s already been enough said. It comes down to the authenticity of our gaze.” A compelling experience that leaves no one unmoved.
▻http://www.thirdworldbunfight.co.za
http://www.thirdworldbunfight.co.za/files/web6-5.jpg 
http://www.thirdworldbunfight.co.za/files/web10-6.jpg #spectacle_vivant #afrique_du_sud #compagnie_theatrale #colonialisme #histoire #woaw