Albert Ibokwe Khoza is an internationally acclaimed performance artist who continuously reveals and projects a state of mind of a loner individual who is a non-binary womanly man and a Sangoma (traditional healer).
2023 Biennial Year Find out more
Through their sexuality and traditional practice, they express their thoughts by moving between different artistic mediums to outline social ills and what their divergent nature sees and interprets about the world they live in, critically questioning their surroundings, their leaders and life itself.
Previous shows include: ‘Black Circus’ Creative Director and performer, producers African Entertainers (2022 -2023); ‘Red Femicycle’Creative Director and performer (2019 – 2022); ‘And So You See’Solo Chor Ibokwe Albert Khoza and Chor Robyn Orlin (2016 -2022); ‘Pygmalion Opera’Lead Director Robyn Orlin (2018 -2019); ‘Take In Take Out’Solo Dir Albert Ibokwe Khoza (2017 -2018)
Liverpool Biennial 2023
'The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu' (2022)
‘The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu’ unpacks the effect that the imperial and colonial gaze has on Black bodies, highlighting the shameful legacy of ethnological expositions (such as human zoos, freak shows and exhibitions) that were popular in Western society between the 1870s and 1960s.
Beginning as a live intervention, Black Circus exposes the violence of these monstrous practices and explores their continuous impact on today’s society. Khoza asks how we might deal with such shameful legacy that echoes into the present? Should we seek to erase it, bury it in the history books, or resurrect, acknowledge and confront this difficult past?
Exhibited here as an installation for the first time, the work examines the continued pain of historical and
‘The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu’ unpacks the effect that the imperial and colonial gaze has on Black bodies, highlighting the shameful legacy of ethnological expositions (such as human zoos, freak shows and exhibitions) that were popular in Western society between the 1870s and 1960s. Beginning as a live intervention, Black Circus exposes the violence of these monstrous practices and explores their continuous impact on today’s society. Khoza asks how we might deal with such shameful legacy that echoes into the present? Should we seek to erase it, bury it in the history books, or resurrect, acknowledge and confront this difficult past? Exhibited here as an installation for the first time, the work examines the continued pain of historical and ongoing racism, becoming a gateway for collective healing and proposing an opportunity for dignity to be reclaimed. Mounds of ropes and objects reclaimed from the ocean symbolise the many souls lost during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. An ‘uMphahlo’ or shrine features cow bones, an animal which is sacred in many African religions, included here as an offering to the spirits and souls of ancestors and ancient guides as remembrance of their existence. The work is a tribute to the spirit of Sarah Baartman (a Khoikhoi woman who was exhibited as a spectacle in 19th Century Europe) and the many Africans who also experienced the dehumanising effects of colonisation and slavery. It is a homage to the artist’s African ancestors who, as the artist recalls, “gave up everything for the benefit of the world at large.” Produced for Liverpool Biennial 2023 in collaboration with African Entertainers Consultancy.
'The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu' (2022)
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Albert Ibokwe Khoza, The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu, 2023. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tobacco Warehouse. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty.
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Albert Ibokwe Khoza, The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu, 2023. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tobacco Warehouse. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty.
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Albert Ibokwe Khoza, The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu, 2023. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tobacco Warehouse. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty.
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Albert Ibokwe Khoza, The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu, 2023. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tobacco Warehouse. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty.
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Albert Ibokwe Khoza, The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu, 2023. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tobacco Warehouse. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty.
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Albert Ibokwe Khoza, The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu, 2023. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tobacco Warehouse. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty.
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Albert Ibokwe Khoza, The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu, 2023. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tobacco Warehouse. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty.
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Albert Ibokwe Khoza, The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu, 2023. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tobacco Warehouse. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty.
