Press

Amsterdam, 9 April 2024 – Metro54 x Buro Stedelijk present: Julianknxx’ Chorus in Flight

Chorus in Flight by Julianknxx is an immersive performance developed in collaboration with The Memoria Collective choir from Amsterdam and Rotterdam conducted by Elique Curiel. It is part of the public program accompanying the exhibition Chorus in Rememory of Flight at Metro54 in Amsterdam.

The performance explores the rich tapestry of diasporic mourning traditions, with an emphasis on themes of community, memory work, laughter, loss, and joy. Grief encompasses a lifeworld beyond our own, momentarily offering a space to engage with voices, feelings, memories, and stories. How do we mourn when the stories fade away? How do we hold space for grief as it transitions into laughter and joy?

Chorus in Flight is part of Julianknxx’ ongoing research seeing how music and sound move us. Sound as a way to express peoples core conditions. Sound being a physical thing that affects us.

It highlights how Julianknxx’ artistic endeavors are deeply intertwined with notions of refusal, memory work, and everyday histories, providing audiences with ways to engage with a multitude of diasporic biographies and stories.

Drawing upon oral traditions and employing a distinctive aesthetic, Julianknxx’ performance serves as a catalyst for reflection and deep listening, inviting us to reconsider the omnipresence of grief, how we construct narratives of remembrance locally and globally, and how we hold space collectively.

Manifestation #51: Chorus in Flight is organized in collaboration with Metro54 and is part of the exhibition project Chorus In Rememory of Flight (on show until 25 May, 2024) at Metro54 in Amsterdam.

The performance Chorus in Flight has been co-commissioned by the Barbican and WePresent by WeTransfer in partnership with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, with support from 180 Studios and De Singel.

Julianknxx will continue to collaborate with Buro Stedelijk. This will manifest into a bigger presentation in Buro Stedelijk’s Central Space in 2025.

The polyphonic nature of Julianknxx’s work is indicative of his expansive practice, which is rooted in poetry but extends into performance, film, music and sculpture. Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Julianknxx draws on his personal experiences to broaden perspectives on the history and culture of Africa and its diasporas. Inspired by oral history traditions and working with a distinctive aesthetic approach, his films invite us to consider how we construct both local and global narratives, while reflecting on how it feels to exist in liminal spaces.

His work has been shown at galleries and museums worldwide, with his acclaimed first institutional solo show Chorus In Rememory of Flight at the Barbican, London (2023), called ‘transcendent and poignant’ by the Evening Standard.

Recent group shows include A World in Common at Tate Modern, London (2023); Rites of Passage at Gagosian, London (2023); and To Be Held at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate (2023). Previous participations include Whitechapel Gallery Open, London (2022); Nocturnal Creatures at Whitechapel Gallery (2021); Lux at 180 The Strand, London (2021); The View from There at Sadie Coles HQ, London (2021); and more.

Performances include Chorus in Flight at St James’s Church (2023); Art Basel Conversations: Sonic Performance, Basel (2023); and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2023).

Buro Stedelijk is a hybrid art space that celebrates community and encourages experiment and boundary-pushing art. As a decentralized observatory, it is attentive to community needs and promotes artistic expression. By fostering collaboration between artists, communities, and institutions, Buro Stedelijk aims to inspire new perspectives and active civic participation. A place where curators, artists and other makers have the freedom to create and present new work which will give fresh impetus to Amsterdam.

For more information or interview requests, please contact us via press@burostedelijk.nl.

2 May 2024

Free entrance with ticket / Gratis toegang met ticket
Entrance: Paulus Potterstraat 13
19:30 – 21:30
Doors open at 19:30