Isaac Julien. Western Union Small Boats

 The multi-channel video installation by Isaac Julien is presented in context of our partner project even 'Kino der Kunst'. 

Little, overcrowded boats on their way to Sicily. One knows that the flight from the hardship in Africa often finds a fatal end. At first, however, Julien shows neither grief nor desperation but images which are hauntingly beautiful. They present themselvesi n the figure of a beautiful, dark-skinned woman, gracefully wandering through magnificent palaces and exuberant gardens. And yet, in the final scenes - people happily enjoying themselves a the beach, bathing in the sea, while bodies of the refugees who drowned cover the shore - the dissent between aesthetics and politics, fiction and reality, fascination and shock manifests itself.

(Source: Museum Brandhorst)