FFF3 | Exhibit B

Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 May
Masterclass by Brett Bailey (11:00-14:00 | Onassis Stegi)

In September 2014 protestors who perceived “Exhibit B” as racist closed the work down at the Barbican, London. The polemic spread to the work’s showing in Paris a few months later, where all attempts to shut down the performance were unsuccessful. According to Bailey and his defenders, ‘the controversy is based on a series of misunderstandings about the work by people who have not attended it’. For more on this controversy, see http://thirdworldbunfight.co.za/exhibit-b/

With the exception of the four singers from Namibia (‘Exhibit Quartet’), the performers of “Exhibit B” are always residents of the city in which the work is presented. Up till now more than 150 people have performed in the work. In Athens (as in other cities), Bailey conducted open auditions, calling candidates to find out about the project, and to participate in it. The run of “Exhibit B” in Athens has been organised with the guidance and unreserved support of the immigrant association Asante.

Ancient Greek myths are a source of inspiration for Bailey. His work “ΟRFEUS” is a ritualistic performance, during which the audience follows Orfeus to an African Hades (underworld), full of children’s slave markets, sex trafficking, and men abandoned in prison cells. In “medEia”, Bailey presents the Argonauts as a troupe of Western militia on the rampage in African villages looking for loot, sex, and adventure. Medea, the priestess of such a village, follows Jason to his country, where she becomes the victim of racist xenophobia.

One of Bailey’s most recent productions, presently on international tour, is Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Macbeth”. Bailey transports the plot to the killing fields of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a 20 year war driven by greed for natural resources has resulted in the deaths and displacement of millions.

Born in 1967 in South Africa, Brett Bailey is a distinguished dramaturg, theatre and opera director, site-specific performance artist, set designer, and visual artist. For twenty years he has been artistic director of the celebrated performance company Third World Bunfight, based in Cape Town. Its aim is the production of theatre, visual installations, opera, music events, and site-specific performances that investigate our world, mostly focusing on post-colonial Africa, and the historical as well as contemporary relations of Africa with the West.

In 2011 Brett Bailey was president of the jury of the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, and a jury member for the competition ‘Music Theatre Now’ of the International Theatre Institute. In 2009 he was artistic director of the opening ceremony for the World Summit on Arts and Culture, Johannesburg. From 2006 to 2009, he directed opening ceremonies for the Harare International Festival of the Arts, Zimbabwe. From 2008 to 2011, he was director of the public arts festival ‘Infecting the City’, Cape Town. His works have been presented all over Europe, Australia, and Africa, receiving numerous awards. These include the Gold Medal for design at the “2007 Prague” Quadrennial. (Source: Hellenic Centre of the International Theatre Institute Centre)