Isaac Julien and Martina Klich in conversation at the Royal Academy

On the 7th of July, Isaac Julien and Martina Klich were in conversation at the Royal Academy in London as part of the course on ‘Collecting and Collections Management’ run by Marie Tavinor. 

Isaac Julien talked about the ideas behind his latest artwork Once Again... (Statues Never Die) with a script writer of the project Martina Klich. They discussed the role of Western art collections and the contested position that some of them have in owning and displaying African statues and artworks, as well as Alain Locke and Albert C. Barnes whose relationship and conversation on art and aesthetics is one of the central points of the work. They also discussed the importance of the archive in Julien's work, and talked about revisiting some of the locations and the footage from his landmark 1989 film Looking for Langston that was used in Once Again... (Statues Never Die).