Artist:
Isaac Julien (born 1960 in London, UK; lives and works in London, UK).

Material:
Poster

Description:
“In 1996, while I was on holidays in Bahia, Brazil, I saw Lina Bo Bardi’s work for the first time. I was at the Museum of Modern Art in Bahia and had the opportunity to see her powerful architecture, including the emblematic staircase in Solar do Unhão. Then, in 2012, I was invited to have a solo exhibition at SESC Pompéia, one of Lina’s most meaningful projects in what concerns her democratic and inclusive practices. For me this was a dream come true.

“It was also at that time that I collaborated with Hans Ulrich Obrist. I created an imaginary poster, The Ghost of Lina Bo Bardi, for an exhibition he curated at Lina’s former residence, the Glass House. Three years later I finally felt the research on her intricate and prolific character had reached a point that enabled me to make public the poetic meditation I have been contemplating since I first met her work almost twenty years ago.

“But questioning our understanding of history and memory is just as important for me. I come from a comprehensive research on facts, which stands as the basis for a regular documentary. With that I am able to extrapolate notions of reality and truth, by inserting in the film images, characters and places that were not necessarily part of what the official story tells us. History is something that might be rewritten as time goes by. It can and should be contested so that new narratives emerge and this way we are able to create new forms of identification, also learning to relate differently with our past and memory.”
—Isaac Julien, Interview by Claire Breukel, “Isaac Julien’s Stones Against Diamonds,” Whitewall,  June 23, 2015.