Julianknxx : In search of... Incredible - LUMA Spring 2026

📍 LUMA Foundation, Arles

▪️ iDzia Installation: the video, the sound, the lighting

Through Legacies and Narratives

Presented at the LUMA Foundation, in the Souterrain, from May 2026 to January 2027, Julianknxx’s installation In Search of… Incredible blends sculpture, film, sound, and objects to create a living space centered on memory, diasporic experiences, ancestry, and transmission.

Julianknxx: poet, artist, and filmmaker

Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and raised in The Gambia and London, Julianknxx has developed a body of work informed by his travels and his experience as a member of a diaspora. Trained as a poet, he explores performance, film, music, and sculpture, giving voice to narratives that are often overlooked.

His first solo exhibition, Chorus In Remembrance of Flight, presented at the Barbican in London in 2023, received widespread acclaim. Since then, he has participated in several international exhibitions, notably at the Tate Modern and the Gagosian Gallery.

Transforming Memory and Preserving Traces

In Search of… Incredible has its origins in a personal story: words the artist discovered on a cardboard box her mother had used in The Gambia to send her a sculpture. These sculptures were then transformed for the exhibition, notably through the use of salt.

Present throughout the installation, salt repairs and serves as a link between personal stories, collective memories, and colonial heritage. Lullabies created with the Comorian choir Boras from Marseille, France also accompany the work, passing on stories and traditions. The exhibition thus tells the story of:

“How something survives, how memory is passed on, transformed, and given back to the world.” (LUMA Arles, 2026).

An exploration of rituals as forms of healing and memory, which gives voice to the stories and knowledge of diasporas.