Exhibition: Totalitarian Props

This exhibition explores and investigates certain acts of tyranny, particularly within the context of the Pan-Africanism ideal and Pan-Arabism dream.

It looks at how state, government and utopian dictatorships developed modalites of population mass-control and utilised surveillance mechanisms. By playing with the political props, real and imagined, a further link is made to the ongoing colonial conversation.

Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Totalitarian Props shows how truth can be perverted, manipulated and disguised under authoritarian power structures. The selected artists bring insight into intimate, archival works and research journeys, unleashing the imagination to represent what life feels like under totalitarian rule. While some draw on real lived experience, others interrogate the broader socio-political picture, by bringing to light overlooked colonial histories and the formation of complex identities that are caught in between.