Poet, artist, and filmmaker Julianknxx has opened Shifting / Spirit / Time – an ambitious multi-screen film installation commissioned by BURO Stedelijk, that takes over London’s landmark church St Mary Le Strand from today through to Sunday 19th October 2025, in collaboration with 180 Studios.
As part of the programme, the church will see a very special evening unfold on Tuesday 14th October with the presentation of Listening in Quantum – Julianknxx’s latest installment of his acclaimed performance series Chorus in Flight. Drawing from his earlier work Chorus in Rememory of Flight first debuted at the Barbican Curve in 2023, the series reimagines histories of migration, displacement, and belonging through voice, movement, and ritual. For Frieze week, Listening in Quantum continues this trajectory, transforming St Mary le Strand into a space where voices converge, past and present
are entwined, and the possibility of belonging is sung into being. The evening will see Julianknxx share a stage with Professor Tina Campt and THABO to dialogue in a choral exchange of vocal and musical soundings where conversation flows organically into performance, live improvisation, and cross-collaboration.
Known for his extensive research and commitment to (re)visiting places and people for collaboration, Shifting / Spirit / Time extends Julianknxx’s dialogue across live performance and installation, carrying forward the energy of collective encounter into a new multi-screen work. Here he builds on his earlier Chorus in Flight performance on the steps of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 2024 with the Memoria Collective, conducted by Elique Curiel.
Transforming it into a living, evolving memory, Shifting / Spirit / Time weaves past and present through fresh footage and reimagined elements, exploring how repetition and reflection can shape the growth of both art and memory. This poetic encounter expands into a powerful new installation, offering a rich sensory experience where poetry, song, and moving-image converge.
“WE ONCE SANG A SONG OF OLD WORDS, MAPPING TIME INTO THE ARCHIVE OF THE BODY.”
– Julianknxx
Through repetition, Julianknxx transforms sound into material, inviting audiences to consider how memory, language, and culture echo through generations. A single repeated refrain – ‘Wai Wai Wai’ – binds the choral voices together, underscoring how sound and attunement can enable the survival of cultural memory. Here, the rhythmic chant becomes a meditation, a celebration, and a reminder of the ways in which sound and rhythm can connect us across time and space.
Themes of connection, loss, generational inheritance and belonging create a layered narrative that moves from poem to song, from sound to stance, transforming ‘Wai’ into ‘Way’. Drawing inspiration from Fred Moten’s words- “We are sent in history, we send history” – Julianknxx explores how sound and collective memory can transcend borders and historical divides, prompting viewers to ask: “How do you move a poem from the page into the visual space? Give it texture, sound, that emotion.” The choir becomes a metaphor for community and encourages new perspectives on what it means to be caught between, and to be of, multiple places.
Shifting / Spirit / Time positions European thought as a crossroads, engaging intellectual inquiries that span Africa, the Caribbean, and North America while challenging national borders and dominant narratives. More than a visual artwork, the manifestation is a ritual-a sacred act of remembrance, a space where grief and memory are cradled, honoured, and allowed to breathe
Shifting / Spirit / Time by Julianknxx at St Mary Le Strand 13th – 19th October 2025, 12-4PM
St Mary Le Strand, Strand, London WC2R 1ES
Listening in Quantum by Julianknxx at St Mary Le Strand Tuesday 14th October 2025, 6-9PM
St Mary Le Strand, Strand, London WC2R 1ES RSVP via anna@studioknxx.com
Coinciding with Shifting / Spirit / Time Edel Assanti will present new work at Frieze London, followed by a solo exhibition at the gallery in June 2026
About the artist
Julianknxx is a poet, artist and filmmaker. 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. Since then, the installation has travelled across Europe with presentations at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM), Lisbon (2025), The Model, Ireland (2025), De Singel, Antwerp (2024). Further solo shows include a new installation ‘Shifting / Spirit / Time’ at BURO Stedelijk, Amsterdam (2025). Recent group shows include; A World in Common at Tate Modern, London (2023), C/O Berlin (2025), Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam (2024), the Sharjah Biennial 16, Sharjah (2025);
Resonance: Black Visual Art & Sonic Chronicles at M.Bassy, Hamburg (2025); Keeping Time at Gallery 1957, Ghana (2024); 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 Attuned in the Bantutronic with Tina Campt at 180 Studios (2024); Chorus in Flight at The Philadelphia Museum of Art (2024), BURO Stedelijk (2024), and St James’s Church (2023); Art Basel Conversations: Sonic Performance, Basel (2023); and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2023).
