LUMA Arles / In Search of… Incredible

At the Parc des Ateliers in Arles, LUMA Arles presents In Search of… Incredible, an exhibition devoted to Julianknxx, a poet, artist and filmmaker who comes from Sierra Leone and is based in London. A new commission is part of the show.

Julianknxx: poetry in conversation with the moving image

Film, sound and performance are the artist’s materials. Over the years he has built a distinctive practice in which poetry answers the moving image, producing pieces in which memory is borne, voiced and endlessly recast. His work looks at the echoes of migration and diaspora, interweaving personal stories with shared histories. In doing so, it makes room for voices and experiences that dominant narratives too often leave aside.

A new commission, an immersive environment at the heart of the exhibition

At the centre of the exhibition, the new commission takes the form of an immersive environment where image, sound and language meet. Belonging is portrayed as both fragile and active, shaped through transmission, inheritance and the act of remembering. Julianknxx sees storytelling as a meeting place: personal testimony allows him to question larger issues of identity and continuity.

Works of deep emotional and formal intensity

The exhibition shows how well Julianknxx can create works of great intensity, both emotional and formal. His approach multiplies the ways stories can be told and lived, and places him among the “most striking voices of his generation”. It also reflects the lasting determination of LUMA Arles to back artists who question and renew the way we understand images and history, as well as the politics of the voice.