1-54 Forum Marrakech

23 - 25 February 2018

Narcissus and Echo

Grada Kilomba (Artist and Writer, Berlin) will present and discuss a new video work, Illusions (2018, 32’), which re-stages the myth of Narcissus and Echo using the oral tradition of African storytelling, where the artist herself plays the role of the Griot. Here, Narcissus is a metaphor for a society that has not come to terms with its colonial history and takes itself and its own image as the only objects of love, while Echo is reduced to endlessly repeating Narcissus’ words. Kilomba asks, how do we break out of this colonial and patriarchal mould?

Talk begins at 34:00 in the recording.

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