© Maru Serrano/La Casa Encendida 2025
Julianknxx
Chorus in Rememory of Flight
Barbican Centre, London: 14 Sep 2023 – 11 Feb 2024
CAM, Lisbon: 22 Feb 2025 – 30 Jun 2025
La Casa Encendida, Madrid: 27 jun 2025 – 30 nov 2025
The solo exhibition by Julianknxx (Freetown, 1987) is the result of creative collaborations that the multidisciplinary artist from Sierra Leone developed in nine European cities, where he collected untold stories from the African diaspora. ‘Chorus in Rememory of Flight’ was presented at the Barbican in London (2023); at CAM in Lisbon (2025); and at La Casa Encendida, in Madrid (2025).
The exhibition was in England from September 2023 to February 2024 and in Portugal from February 2025 to June, with new works created for the Lisbon show.
Addressing themes such as colonial heritage, loss and belonging, Julianknxx is a prominent voice among the African diaspora and works at the boundaries between the written word, music and visual art. Drawing on his own history, the artist seeks to deconstruct preconceptions about African art, history and culture, working on the black experience of building and rebuilding identities, rejecting labels and creating new collective narratives.
The exhibition, initially at the Barbican, was the result of a multi-channel video installation entitled ‘Chorus in Rememory of Flight’. It was born from a project that took the artist, over 6,500 kilometres, to different European port cities with strong links to colonial history, such as Lisbon, Antwerp, Hamburg, Marseilles and Rotterdam. For a year, Julianknxx collaborated with local choirs, politicians, dancers and activists.
Adopting a ‘practice of listening,’ the artist gathered testimonies, performances and contexts to create a series of films that reflect on the chorus as a means of resistance to the eradication of differences.
This ‘practice of listening’ is based on traditions of African oral history, with exchanges being interwoven like a chorus of individual, local and global perspectives. The result is an emotional encounter with Europe’s past and present and the possibilities extending into the future.
The vast distance travelled is a reflection of the many kilometres traversed by the interviewees and their ancestors over the course of history. A single refrain – ‘We are what’s left of us’ – unites the voices of the choir, speaking of the way music can be a vital vehicle for the survival of cultural memory.
In 2023, Julianknxx was an artist in residence in Lisbon, where he worked with the Gospel Collective choir and musicians Edvania Moreno and Kenny Caetano. A poetic performance, focused on the relationship between materiality and the black psyche, which emerged from these work sessions was presented at the Gulbenkian Foundation’s open-air amphitheatre.
As for his exhibition at CAM, ‘Chorus in Rememory of Flight’ was expanded through the contribution of some of Julianknxx’s close collaborators in Lisbon, such as a newly commissioned work by Tristany Mundu. This chapter included two new works going deeper into the realities of our city, and the many untold story it holds. This exhibition also had a reading room – a space for rest and relaxation. For Julianknxx, resting is a radical act of resistance, and in this space one is able to consult a series of books by African and diaspora authors that map interests, memories and histories, as well as focusing on a vast production of contemporary critical discourse.
During its time at CAM, we brought together a curatorial team who created an associated programme that echo the themes of colonial heritage, loss and belonging.
The elements of the exhibition are on show for the first time in Spain, at La Casa Encendida, a cultural centre in Madrid, in the Room A, as part of the programme ‘Verbos encendidos #1: Escuchar’ (Words Alight #1: Listen).