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Date and Time

23rd March 2024

Location

Conway Hall
25 Red Lion Square, London. WC1R 4RL

Speakers and Artists
  • Isaac Julien
  • Gilane Tawadros

The Stuart Hall Foundation is delighted to welcome acclaimed filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien for the inaugural event in our Catastrophe and Emergence programme, the Foundation’s 7th Annual Stuart Hall Public Conversation at Conway Hall, London, on Saturday 23rd March 2024.

Isaac’s keynote presentation will focus on the current state of the imaginary, exploring the connection between image-making and political allegory. He 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. Isaac 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. 

The event will include a new two-screen presentation of Isaac Julien’s immersive installation Once Again… (Statues Never Die), which 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’ pioneering art collecting and democratic, inclusive educational enterprise. *Please note that this film contains nudity.*

Following the keynote and screening, Isaac will be in conversation with Stuart Hall Foundation Chair, and Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, Gilane Tawadros. 

Full details of the the Catastrophe and Emergence programme here.

Attendees can either attend in person at Conway Hall in London, UK, or join online via a livestream. 

Tickets are now on sale and cost £20 full / £15 concession / £10 online.

Live online captions and BSL interpretation will be available. For any additional access information, please contact us on info@stuarthallfoundation.org

In partnership with Conway Hall supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust and Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a donor-advised fund held at The London Community Foundation.

Image: Portrait of Isaac Julien by Thierry Bal

Speakers and Artists

Isaac Julien

Isaac Julien, RA is a critically acclaimed British artist and filmmaker. He creates multi-screen film installations and photographs that incorporate different artistic disciplines to create a poetic and unique visual language. Born in 1960 in London, he is one of the most prominent figures at the intersection of media art and cinema today. In 2018, Julien joined the faculty at the University of California Santa Cruz, where he is a Distinguished Professor of the Arts and leads the Moving Image Lab together with Arts Professor Mark Nash. His work is held in collections including Tate, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town and Towner Art Gallery Collection, Eastbourne, UK. He worked on several film projects with Stuart Hall over many years, including Kapital (2013). 

Isaac Julien is a Patron of the Stuart Hall Foundation.

Gilane Tawadros

Gilane Tawadros is the Director of the Whitechapel Gallery. She was formerly Chief Executive of DACS and Co-Director of the Art360 Foundation. She was the founding Director of the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva) in London, chaired by Professor Stuart Hall, which, over a decade, achieved an international reputation as a ground-breaking cultural agency at the leading edge of artistic and cultural debates nationally and internationally. She has written extensively on contemporary art and curated a number of international exhibitions. She has worked with and advised a number of leading international cultural organisations including Tate, Hayward Gallery, Camden Arts Centre, International Foundation Manifesta, Venice Biennial and Forum for African Arts. She is Chair of the Stuart Hall Foundation, Trustee of the Stuart Croft Foundation and Member of the Advisory Committee for the Yale Center for British Art. Her anthology The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon: Global Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Difference was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.