Viewing Julianknxx: Chorus in Rememory of Flight

At the heart of Julianknxx’s rousing multi-video installation at the Curve is the 4,000 odyssey he took to nine cities across Europe with a heavy colonial legacy. The films splice his own poetry with urban scenes laden with the history of slavery, and performances and accounts from Black residents he met along the way, including a dancer improvising on the German subway. Often anger and exhaustion comes to the fore, with one resident refusing to do anything but sleep while he filmed her, because she was ‘tired of talking about Blackness’ and ‘wanted to rest’.

The stories the films collect are rich and varied, intertwining across the many screens to meditative effect. Choirs and musicians repeat the same refrain in one work, ‘We are what’s left of us’ in a tone that blends elegy with defiance. This is a show that will echo in your mind for weeks to come