What it means to possess no history, and thus to have no future, culminates in the video Motlhaba Wa Re Ke Namile that Lerato Shadi filmed in her native town, Lotlhakane: The work evokes the so-called slave masks that white slave owners placed over the heads of their dehumanised workforce to prevent them from swallowing dirt and thus committing suicide — as a last gesture of resistance. In the video, Shadi eats earth from her homeland, gags, stuffs more into her mouth, and gags again as tears roll down her cheeks. The only part of her that is visible is the section of her face from her cropped eyes down to the shoulder area and the hands that continue to stuff earth into her mouth. Text by Angelika Stepken

• Sektion Section: Exhibition
• Programm Programme: Possessed