Chokri Ben Chikha is an international performer/artistic director/researcher, who has won prizes with his productions (Louis Paul Boon prize, 2005; Artist Award at the Afrika Film Festival, 2014). He obtained a MA in history at the UGent and accomplished additional trainings as theatre-maker, actor, dancer and choreographer. He has taught at several institutions (a.o. KASK/School of Arts/HoGent, RITS/Brussel, Toneelacademie Maastricht, Universiteit Antwerpen). Since 2007 he is lecturer and researcher in arts at KASK/Faculty of Fine Arts/University College Ghent. Between 2003-2008 he was for the international performance group Union Suspecte artistic director, theater-maker and performer, he interrupted his theatre activities in order to focus on a PhD in arts at KASK/UGent titled ‘What is the critical value to use stereotypes as signs in theatre? The “human zoo” as a (re)search tool’. The research project entailed a scholarly process of reflection in combination with theatrical experimentation. The research can be characterized as a performative research project, which is inter- and multi-disciplinary, incorporating a critique of arts. It gave rise to the foundation of the international performance company Action Zoo Humain (AZH) for which Ben Chikha is the artistic leader. The PhD was successfully accomplished with the multidisciplinary performance ‘The Truth Commission'(2013) in Ghent. This research project made the link between colonial history and the post-colonial present by using the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the world exhibition at the city of Ghent (1913).This production was performed in 2014 in Cape Town , South Africa, in collaboration with the University of the Western Cape. In okt 2016 the ‘ Truth Commission’ will play at the old courthouse in Antwerp. Today Chokri Ben Chikha teaches, is post-doc researcher at KASK/Faculty of Fine Arts University College Ghent and artistic director/performer of Action Zoo Humain (www.actionzoohumain.be).