Hekabe’s reven­ge is grief — Khadija El Kharraz Alami
14.05 — 11:00 I Guislainsite / All Greeks Festival, Ghent 

“Why does tra­ge­dy exist?
Because you are full of rage. Why are you full of rage?
Because you are full of grief”
– Anne Carson, Grief Lessons — Tragedy: A Curious Art Form 

For their All Greeks Festival, NTGent invi­ted Khadija El Kharraz Alami to adapt a Greek tra­ge­dy and make it her own. Creating an instal­la­ti­on, Khadija draws inspi­ra­ti­on from her encoun­ters with child­ren, ado­les­cents and adults staying at Psychiatric Centre Dr Guislain. And from the earth-shat­te­ring tra­ge­dy Hekabe. In it, we are con­fron­ted with the awe-inspi­ring grief — a grief that rea­ches beyond lan­gu­a­ge, beyond being human — and the gru­e­so­me reven­ge of the Trojan queen Hekabe, who lost all her child­ren and loved ones.

In this time of exten­si­ve psy­cho­lo­gi­cal suf­fe­ring and numerous wars, numerous emo­ti­ons remain unsaid and unpro­ces­sed. Guislain gives El Kharraz Alami the oppor­tu­ni­ty to dwell on this, to make spa­ce for sha­red mourning.

© ntgent