The Stuart Hall Foundation will welcome acclaimed filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien for the 7th Annual Stuart Hall Public Conversation at Conway Hall, London, on Saturday 23rd March 2024. Julien’s keynote presentation will be accompanied by a new configuration of his immersive installation Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (2022).
Focusing on the current state of the imaginary, and exploring the connection between image-making and political allegory, Julien will draw upon the conversations he had with Stuart Hall over the years to reflect on how ideas, language and narrative strategies can transform within a visual frame to present new modes of the imaginary. He will discuss the connections between his art practice and the “diasporic dream-space” – inspired by the words of the late bell hooks – to think about the different ways in which a poetic critique and counter-imaginary can develop.
Since the first iteration of the Stuart Hall Foundation’s Annual Public Conversation in 2018, speakers have included, Linton Kwesi Johnson, David Edgar, Elaine Mitchener, Jacqueline Rose, Roger Robinson, Jay Bernard, Bahia Shehab and Raymond Antrobus. Isaac Julien’s Public Conversation is part of the Foundation’s first full-length annual programme, centred around the theme Catastrophe and Emergence. Examining catastrophes as signals of crises of survival, knowledge, and power, the inaugural programme invites artists, academics, and organisers to examine this conjuncture, trace the histories constituting it, and consider its political and creative possibilities.
The event will include a new two-screen presentation of Isaac Julien’s immersive installation Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (2022), projected on a single screen. This will be the first time the piece has been shown in this particular format in the UK. Drawing on Julien’s extensive research in the archives of the Barnes Foundation, the film explores the reciprocal impact of Alain Locke’s political philosophy and cultural organising activities, and Albert C. Barnes’s pioneering art collecting and democratic, inclusive educational enterprise.
Following the keynote and screening, Isaac will be in conversation with Stuart Hall Foundation Chair, and Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, Gilane Tawadros.
7TH ANNUAL STUART HALL PUBLIC CONVERSATION WITH ISAAC JULIEN, Conway Hall, London, Saturday 23 March 2024 2-5pm
Attendees can either attend in person at Conway Hall in London, UK or join online via a live stream. Tickets are available at conwayhall.org.uk/whats-on
In partnership with Conway Hall supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a donor-advised fund held at The London Community Foundation.
About Catastrophe and Emergence
Catastrophes signal a crisis of survival, knowledge, and power. They simultaneously herald destruction and renewal, political closures and openings, the demise of old ways of knowing and the?emergence of new ways to relate to our ever-changing world. The Stuart Hall Foundation’s first full-length annual programme, Catastrophe and Emergence, draws from these ideas to invite artists, academics and organisers to examine this conjuncture, trace the histories constituting it, and consider the political and creative possibilities that might emerge from what was.
There is no shortage of prescient political questions to consider in 2024. The Stuart Hall Foundation is dedicating the 2024 programme to nurturing a variety of online and in-person spaces for confronting the present, sharing insights through free and open dialogue, and honing the discursive tools to imagine and articulate alternatives together.
Details of the Catastrophe and Emergence programme can be found HERE
About
The Stuart Hall Foundation was established in 2015 by Professor Stuart Hall’s family, friends and colleagues. The Foundation is committed to public education, addressing urgent questions of race and inequality in culture and society through talks and events, and building a growing network of Stuart Hall Foundation scholars and artists in residence.
The Foundation works collaboratively to forge creative partnerships in the spirit of Stuart Hall; thinking together and working towards a racially just and more equal future. It strives to fulfil their commitments through two streams of activity:
Providing scholarships and creative opportunities for students and artists from disenfranchised and underrepresented backgrounds; building connections among them and with our partner institutions.
Promoting critical thought and understanding through a public programme of events, residencies, commissions and conversations that foster an intergenerational creative exchange, enrich political debate, and create space for new ideas. stuarthallfoundation.org
