Searching for Libertalia allows us to see through time, revealing different historical moments linking geography, history, cultural and politics. It reminds us that history is simultaneously distant and present. In contested landscapes relics of past traumas exist in plain sight, be it the locations of extraction along the coast of north Madagascar dating back to the Dutch slave trade or relics of artillery from the Vichy French left in situ.
Bayjoo’s work, a pseudo archive of history and narrative provides a basis from which more contemporary questions can be discussed. Reassessing the past, Bayjoo explores the dynamics of post-independence, asking what happened to the places that had to build themselves from what Empire left behind.
Searching for Libertalia was originally commissioned by New Art Exchange, Nottingham.
Shiraz Bayjoo was born in Mauritius, he lives and works in London.