Edinburgh Festival’s Most Controversial Show: Exhibit B, a Human Zoo

THE GUARDIAN
By John O'Mahony

"What interests me about ­human zoos is the way people were objectified. Once you objectify people, you can do the most terrible things to them" … Brett Bailey talking about his show Exhibit B, pictured. Photograph: Murdo Macleod.

UNITED KINGDOM---It’s the first Edinburgh rehearsal of Exhibit B and there’s mutiny in the air. The work, a highly controversial installation by the South African theatre-maker Brett Bailey, is based on the grotesque phenomenon of the human zoo, in which African tribespeople were displayed for the titillation of European and American audiences under the guise of “ethnological enlightenment”. The only problem is that the young black performers, cast locally at every stop along the tour, aren’t quite getting it. “How do you know we are not entertaining people the same way the human zoos did?” asks one. “How can you be sure that it’s not just white people curious about seeing black people?” adds another. As the temperature in the room begins to rise, the group cries out in unison: “How is this different?” [link]

Exhibit B is at the Playfair Library Hall, University of Edinburgh, until 25 August; then at the Barbican, London EC2, 23-27 September.

An illustration of Sara Baartman, AKA the Hottentot Venus, who
was brought to Europe in 1810 and put in a human zoo. Photograph: Alamy