Hommage à Sara Bartman

The title and the piece itself refer to a South African Khoisan woman who was brought to Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century to be exhibited as the “Hottentot Venus”. Díaz Nerio’s performance looks at the ways in which the Black female body was historically objectifi ed and coded as the “Other”. The translation of Bartman’s body into a monumental posture is reclaiming her as a defi ant fi gure against racism. By ascribing a disturbingly voyeuristic role to the audience the piece also critically hints at the continuity of racial discrimination within the present Western world.