What Colours Can We Dream…

Julianknxx, Elique Curiel, Chœur Boras

Julianknxx was in residence at LUMA Arles from mid April to June 2025.

The polyphonic nature of Julianknxx’s work is indicative of his expansive practice, which is rooted in poetry but extends into performance, film, music and sculpture. Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Julianknxx draws on his personal experiences to broaden perspectives on the history and culture of Africa and its diasporas. Inspired by oral history traditions and working with a distinctive aesthetic approach, his films invite us to consider how we construct both local and global narratives, while reflecting on how it feels to exist in liminal spaces.

His work has been shown at galleries and museums worldwide, with his latest institutional showcase In Search of…Incredible on view at LUMA Arles until January 2027. Added solo presentations include Shifting / Spirit / Time, BURO Stedelijk, Amsterdam (2025), and St Mary le Strand, London (2025); Chorus In Rememory of Flight, Barbican Curve, London (2023), De Singel, Antwerp (2024), Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM), Lisbon (2025), and The Model, Sligo (2025).

Additional group shows include: The Bienal de São Paulo (2025), A World in Common, Tate Modern, London (2023), Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam (2024), C/O Berlin (2025), the Sharjah Biennial 16, Sharjah (2025); Resonance: Black Visual Art & Sonic Chronicles, M.Bassy, Hamburg (2025); Keeping Time, Gallery 1957, Accra (2024); Rites of Passage, Gagosian, London (2023); and To Be Held, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate (2023). Previous participations include Whitechapel Gallery Open, London (2022); Nocturnal Creatures, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2021); Lux, 180 The Strand, London (2021); The View from There, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2021); and more.

Performances include Listening Quantum, St Mary le Strand (2025); Attuned in the Bantutronic with John Akomfrah, TBA21, Madrid (2025); Attuned in the Bantutronic with Tina Campt, 180 Studios, London (2024); Chorus in Flight, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2024), BURO Stedelijk, Amsterdam (2024), and St James’s Church, London (2023); Art Basel Conversations: Sonic Performance, Basel (2023); and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2023).

Born in the Netherlands and raised in Curaçao from the age of six, Elique Curiel is a performer, vocal arranger, and choir director whose sound carries the heritage of the island's cultural melting pot. Growing up, her ears were shaped by a diverse mix of Caribbean traditions rooted in African rhythms, Latin American beats, European classical compositions, Black Gospel music, and Roman Catholic influences.

This foundation took root in her childhood living room, where she fell asleep to the weekly evening rehearsals of the family choir directed by her father and sang with them in churches all over the island. When she returned to the Netherlands at eighteen to study medicine, music remained an anchor, connecting her with like-minded creative minds. Though she went on to become a medical doctor, this passion swiftly grew far beyond a hobby into unforeseen artistic collaboration, leading to a path that has included performing at events featuring Barack Obama, singing for the Dutch Royal Family, sharing stages with the Metropole Orkest, and backing Mariah Carey alongside ZO! Gospel Choir.

This journey deeply informs her practice as a vocal architect. Expanding on a multi-year creative connection with artist Julianknxx, Elique was brought on in 2024 to arrange and direct the choir for their performance on the iconic stairs of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In this immersive experience, her musical approach centered on layering his spoken lines and resonant melodies into rich, meditative harmonies that were immortalized as a multi-screen museum installation the following year.

Drawing from every tradition and experience that shaped her, Elique uses the voice as a conduit for pure emotion. Whether on major stages or in an intimate dialogue with poetry and space, she invites people into a deeply felt, shared moment, aiming to broaden our perspective both inward and outward in true connection with one another.

Since 2009, at Cube 5 — a community and artistic laboratory run by the Sound Musical School B.Vice association in Marseille — women and children have met to share memories and pass down lullabies, some taken from Comorian radio broadcasts, others handed down within each family. The songs carry echoes of African-American blues, and speak to what it means to be a woman and the place women hold in society. The choir offers them a space to give voice to those experiences amongst themselves.

The Boras Choir grew out of these gatherings in 2012. A Marseille-based women’s vocal ensemble of Comorian origin, it set out to keep this fragile heritage alive and pass it on before it slips away. In the Comoros archipelago, ‘bora’ is the word for everyday songs and lullabies.

The choir has performed and collaborated with, among others: the Pierre Barbizet Conservatoire in Marseille; artist and poet Julianknxx; the ‘La nuit des Griots’ festival at the Cité de la Musique in Marseille; the Ballet national de Marseille; the Friche la Belle de Mai; the ‘Oh les beaux jours!’ festival; the Citadelle de Marseille; Marseille Concerts; the Centre de la Vieille Charité; the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican; and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.