Julianknxx: Chorus in Rememory of Flight

It is with honor and pleasure that Metro54 opened this Spring season with a thought-provoking exhibition by poet, artist, and filmmaker Julianknxx, accompanied by a public program that offers a melody to Black diasporic life. The project marks the start of Metro54’s multi-year program, Seasons of Diasporic Life, that zooms into Black diasporic cultural practices and the ways artists and cultural producers address, document, reflect deeply or imagine otherwise the urgency of Black social life and realities in Fortress Europe.    

Julianknxx is a visual artist and poet based in London, whose artistic practice is rooted in poetry, which is the foundation for his cinematographic work as well as his collaborative performances. At Metro54, Chorus in Rememory of Flight manifests itself as two immersive cinematographic environments that offer an intimate pathway to diasporic stories and everyday histories. Chorus in Rememory of Flight, which is not only the title of the show but also a work that weaves together through a music and poetic refrain different diasporic choirs and voices that narrate personal anecdotes, migratory histories of their diasporic communities.

As a homage to the city, where this project of Julianknxx began in 2021, he created a new work: “And if a tree sees it all.” This video installation is a poetic, cinematographic reflection on memory-making, communal archiving, and witnessing. “De boom die alles zag” (“The tree which saw everything”) has been a silent witness since the Bijlmermeer disaster 30 years ago, and serves as a powerful symbol of resilience and collective mourning in Amsterdam Southeast.

Next to the two cinematographic works this show consists of performances, film screening and conversations which will be hosted in collaboration with partner organizations such as Buro Stedelijk and Bijlmer Park Theater.

Upcoming gatherings
May 16: Metro54 x Bijlmer Parktheater present: Resonant Harmony: Take me to church. On choirs and polyphonic voices in Amsterdam Zuidoost.

May 25: Closing event Julianknxx @ Metro54: on Black Cinepoetics.

About Julianknxx
Julianknxx is a poet, performer, and filmmaker. Describing himself as someone “interested in people, searching for the connections between us,” Julianknxx explores themes of loss, inheritance, and connection. Central to his work is the relationship between the body and the Black psyche. Julianknxx is artist in residence at 180 Studios in London and has exhibited at Barbican, London (2023), Tate Modern, London (2023), and Art Basel Conversations: Sonic Performance, Basel (2023). Recent group exhibitions include Rites of Passage, Gagosian, London (2023).

About METRO54
Metro54 is a space for global sonic, cultural and artistic practices, gathering(s), (un)learning, histories, grassroots community work, spatial politics and transformative justice.Together with artists, thinkers, activists, neighbors, writers and hustlers Metro54 organizes pluriversal programs, exhibition projects, collaborations, listening sessions, weekenders, research projects, conversations and take-overs.

Information
Exhibition dates: March 23–May 25, 2024 / Opening hours: Thursday–Saturday 12–5pm / Location: Metro54, Westerdoksdijk 597, Amsterdam / Website / Entrance: Free.

The exhibition is supported by the Mondriaan Fund and co-financed by the Barbican and WeTransfer in collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, with support from 180 Studios and De Singel.