Third World Bunfight presents

Exhibit A

Throughout 2012 and 2013

Site specific

As with all of Brett Bailey’s work, Exhibit A investigates the layers and complexities of the African colonial and post-colonial landscape. Here he looks at the effects of colonialism on the indigenous peoples of Nambia, which culminated in genocide of the Nama and Herero people between 1904 and 1907 – the first genocide of the twentieth century.

The Herero and the Nama people were two of the most centralised and populous peoples in South West Africa.. Within 15 years the German colonial administration had brutally and systematically colonised them and appropriated vast swathes of their territory and their cattle. In January 1904 the Herero struck back in frustration, and the Kaiser threw the weight of his military might at them. Defeated at the Battle of Waterberg, they were pursued by the colonial forces into the terrible Omaheke Desert. Here the military governor issued his notorious "extermination order". Wells were poisoned and tens of thousands perished of thirst or were hunted down and shot. In the forced-labour camps set up after the war, rape and beatings were routine. Under dreadful conditions several thousand Herero and Nama died of disease, exposure, starvation and exhaustion.

This performance-installation – featuring Nama and Herero participants – references the anthropological displays of museums and world trade fairs, which were the rage during the Great Imperial Age of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As social Darwinism gained ground, the exhibition of colonised people as backward and savage, justified the actions of the European nations that were appropriating their lands and “civilising” the people into a cheap labour force. The dehumanisation of these people minimised the horrors of the atrocities that were committed in colonies like German South-West African the Congo and, later, South Africa.

In Exhibit A Bailey creates a haunting, disturbing landscape that plays with the ethnographic apparatus of display, and uses music and testimony to critique the Western framing of the Other. The atmosphere of the installation is subdued, elegant and reflective.

Bailey plans to make versions of Exhibit A that tackle the colonial histories of Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the UK.

"The piece is a mixture of shock therapy and musical and visual aesthetic" neue-brauschweiger.de

"This is necessary because Europe has a lot to learn" Der Standard - Austria

"Exhibit A: Deutsch-sudwestafrika leads not only the fate of the indigenous population during the colonial period before your eyes, but also draws the eye to how people are perceived in Africa today" Wiener Zeitung - Austria

If you would like to book Exhibit A please contact Jan Ryan . 

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