What lives and stories are connected to the objects in museums? What remains unseen and unsaid? And how might these cultural artefacts speak to us? Dear Museum! is a new work by Albert Ibokwe Khoza, a performance artist from South Africa, commissioned by the Humboldt Forum Foundation in collaboration with African Entertainers, Johannesburg. Dear Museum! is both a love letter and a farewell letter to ethnological museum practice. The performance questions this practice and explores the gaps in the presentation of the collections. Following the sensational performance THE BLACK CIRCUS OF THE REPUBLIC OF BANTU, which explored the colonial human zoos as part of the Transkontinentale Festival 2024, Khoza is developing this world premiere specifically for the Humboldt Forum.
With his new performance, Albert Ibokwe Khoza challenges the work of Western ethnological museums – in particular the Ethnological Museum at the Humboldt Forum – in a manner that is both provocative and conciliatory. The subtitle of Dear Museum! is The Truth of the Matter: It Seems Everything Was Better When We Were Not Telling the Truth …
Continue reading the article on DEEDS.NEWS
Image above: Portrait of performance artist Albert Ibokwe Khoza for the in-house production “Dear Museum!” © African Entertainers
