T2i & NouN

manman dilo

France

2026

Manman Dilo, mother of the waters, a mystical figure half-woman, half-fish shared by the peoples of French Guiana, embodies the natural power and spirit of the waters, both feared and revered. The artists draw on the place name “French Guiana,” which means “land of abundant water” in the Arawak and Wayana languages, to imagine a world where water is omnipresent. Together, they develop an Afro-futuristic iconography around this Amazonian myth, which is still rarely represented in public spaces. In an environmental dystopia where manman Dilo reclaims the places and objects of the modern world, she witnesses the damage inflicted on the waters. Noun and T2i thus question this figure as the guardian of Afro-descendant memories and oral traditions, but also as a sovereign feminine force.