Human Zoo Exhibition comes to Paris amid racism row

Story by France24

“Exhibit B”, an art show featuring black actors in cages which was cancelled by London’s famed Barbican Centre in September, is set to open in the French capital later this month sparking furious protests.



The controversial work, created by white South African artist Brett Bailey, is supposed to be a thought-provoking look at the 19th-and 20th-century practice of exhibiting people from the colonies in human zoos for public amusement.

The exhibition is due to open at the Théatre Gérard Philipe at Saint Denis, and the Centquatre cultural centre in northern Paris at the end of November. Both venues are in areas with high non-white populations.

Bailey insists “Exhibit B” aims to improve awareness of the racism of Europe’s colonial past, while challenging viewers to question their role as voyeurs in contemporary human tragedies (one of the “tableaux” features a modern-day asylum seeker bound to an aeroplane seat with gaffer tape).

But not everyone agrees.

A petition has been launched in Paris – mirroring a successful appeal in the UK – for the exhibition to be cancelled on the grounds that it is just as racist as the colonial-era human zoos it purports to condemn.

“The idea that a human zoo of this type ... can be used as a vehicle to reduce racism is ridiculous,” petition organizers – “Contre Exhibit B” – wrote on appeals website change.org.


"Exhibit B" a human zoo exhibition opens this month at the Théatre Gérard Philipe at Saint Denis, and the Centquatre cultural centre in northern Paris. (photo by Franck Pennant/AFP)

“This exhibition is an insult to the people living in the areas where the exhibition is to be shown who are forced to confront and understand racism on a daily basis.

“Freedom of expression is not a good enough justification for our cultural centers to put on this kind of horror show.”

Storm of protest

‘Exhibit B’ was shown in France in 2013 (at the Centquatre and the Avignon Festival), and again at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland in the summer of 2014, without any controversy.

When London’s Barbican announced it would run ‘Exhibit B’, it faced such a storm of protest and an online campaign that gained some 25,000 signatures that eventually convinced the Barbican to cancel the show.

Writing in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, Birmingham City University sociology lecturer Dr Kehinde Andrews called ‘Exhibit B’ an example “of “art” that “offends, that crosses the line into racial exploitation and abuse, creating a grotesque parody of suffering played out by voiceless black cadavers”.

“If you pay to see it you are colluding in the worst kind of racial abuse; that which is done in the pretence (or worse, the belief) that it is progressive.”

‘An alarming trend’

In France, the organisers of the new show are worried about growing public fury at controversial art exhibits in the context of modern social media mobilization, and, in this case, the use of online petitions to intimidate galleries into cancelling events.

“Last month protesters attacked the “Tree” installation by US artist Paul McCarthy in Paris’s Place Vendome [that many saw as simply a giant butt plug] and they complained about the ‘Zizi Sexuel’ show [aimed at educating teenagers about love and sex],” Centquatre’s communications director told FRANCE 24.

“Previous exhibitions of ‘Zizi Sexuel’ were very well received,” she added. “It’s an alarming trend.”

In an open letter defending the forthcoming show, the Centquatre and the Théâtre Gérard Philipe defended their show and insisted Brett Bailey’s ‘Exhibit B’ was in no way racist.

“This work of art denounces all forms of dehumanization and racism without ambiguity,” the letter states. “Each living tableaux is extremely precise on the historical facts, which puts them in the proper context.

“This work of art demands that viewers rethink their view on what humanity means. Do we, in the 21st century, really know how to be human beings?”

French historian Pascal Blanchard said that he wasn’t surprised that ‘Exhibit B’ had prompted outrage: “That’s the point.”

“It is an extremely disturbing work,” he said. “There is a powerful undercurrent of violence that serves to reject the violence of a previous era.”