In her performances, Grada Kilomba brings the oral African tradition to a contemporary context, using texts, narration, images and video projections to recover the memories and realities of a postcolonial world. ‘There is nothing new to say’, insists the artists, ‘because we all know that we’re still inhabiting the geographies of the past’. To explore this coexistence of times, in which the past seems to coincide with the present and the present seems suffocated by a colonial past that insists on abiding, Kilomba gives us a glimpse into our narcissistic society, which offers up little by way of symbols, images and vocabularies with which to deal with the present. An illusion of times and spaces, which the artist tries to recount through the myths of Narcissus and Echo: Narcissus is enchanted by his own reflection on the lake surface, ignoring all else, while Echo is reduced to endlessly repeating what she’s heard. The question is, how do we break out of this colonial mould?

Registration via form
Capacity: up to 300 people by order of arrival

Artistic direction, text, video and choreography: Grada Kilomba
Performance (in video and/or on stage): Martha Fessehatzion, Moses Leo, Grada Kilomba, Zé de Paiva
Cameras: Zé de Paiva
Camera and sound assistants: Laura Alonso, Tito Casal
Music: Moses Leo
Costume design: Moses Leo
Part of the performance Illusions was created and completed during the Goethe-Institut's residency program in Salvador, Bahia, Vila Sul.

photo: Moses Leo