T2i
T2i( b. 1991, Cayenne, French Guiana) is a rapper, graphic designer, and music video director who lives and works in Roura, in eastern French Guiana. In 2022 he and the artist NouN created Manman Dilo, a multidisciplinary exhibition shown in French Guiana, Paris, and several cities in Brazil. The artists’ starting point was the place name“ Guiana,” which according to Indigenous tradition means“ Land of abundant water” in the Arawak and Wayana languages. Together they created a collective imaginary and iconography to be presented in a public space that centered on a mythical creature from French Guiana: Manman Dilo,“ Mother of Waters” or Mami Wata, half woman and half fish, a figure both feared and admired. With Manman Dilo the artists offer a group of works that investigate this figure as a privileged guarantor of history and the ancestral oralities of African descent, as well as a strong feminine power. T2i’ s work reflects his strong connection to his native Creole culture. He often addresses themes related to identity, daily life, and social issues in French Guiana.
The short film Manman Dilo( 2022), both directed and scored by T2i, remains partly faithful to the popular stories that surround this character in French Guiana. In this film, T2i depicts Manman Dilo, who lives in rivers and the oceans, as a strong, healing, and feminine force. He skillfully plays with well-known images that are laden with religious symbolism and reaffirms the central place of Black women at the heart of a belief system often dominated by white and patriarchal points of reference.( NouN and T2i)
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