This exhibition is sponsored by the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms Initiative, Comcast NBCUniversal, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and is made possible by Agnes Gund, Emily and Mike Cavanagh, Marjorie Ogilvie and Miller Parker, Brenda A. and Larry D. Thompson, Darrell and Melenese Ford, and Ronald Blaylock.
Once Again (Statues Never Die) stars actor André Holland (Moonlight and Passing) as Alain Locke, Danny Huston (Succession and Marlowe) as Dr. Barnes, rising star Devon Terrell as sculptor Richmond Barthé, and Sharlene Whyte (Small Axe and Lessons of the Hour) as the curator. It also features a special appearance by singer and songwriter Alice Smith.
“This project explores Dr. Barnes’s and Alain Locke’s storied relationship, its mutually formative critical dialogue, and its significant impact on their work as cultural critics, educators, organizers, and activists on behalf of various African American causes,” says Julien.
Once Again (Statues Never Die) examines the significant and often neglected place of African objects in numerous collections of western art museums. Utilizing poetic reparation and historical archives—drawing on Julien’s extensive research in the archives of the Barnes Foundation—the film explores the impact of Locke’s political philosophy and cultural organizing activities on Dr. Barnes’s pioneering art collecting and his democratic, inclusive educational enterprise. Additionally, it looks at contemporary debates around statues with recourse to the 1953 film by Chris Marker and Alain Resnais, Les statues meurent aussi (Statues Also Die). Combining the original script written by Isaac Julien and Martina Klich with recently discovered archival footage from the 1970 film You Hide Me by Nii Kwate Owoo about the African sculptures in the British Museum, the film engages with the current critical debates on African art collecting and repatriation of the sculptures.
Exploring Locke’s engagement with the Barnes collection, Isaac Julien aims both to honor Locke’s important contribution to the arts and to open critical conversations regarding the African art works that influenced the Black cultural movement. The installation spotlights Dr. Barnes’s subsequent writings on the meaning and value of African material culture and its import to the African diaspora, which were reproduced in such Harlem Renaissance periodicals as Opportunity. In the film, Julien revisits some of the themes he approached in his landmark 1989 film Looking for Langston and continues his exploration of the queer subculture of the Harlem Renaissance by exploring the relationship between Locke and sculptor Richmond Barthé with a staging of Barthé’s sculptures at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). A selection of Barthé’s sculptures will also be presented in the Barnes exhibition.
“A visionary collector and pioneering educator, Dr. Barnes was also an advocate for the civil rights of African Americans, women, and the economically marginalized,” says Thom Collins, Neubauer Family Executive Director and President and exhibition curator. “Committed to racial equality and social justice decades before the advent of the civil rights movement, he established a scholarship program to support young Black artists, musicians, and writers—including Locke’s associates such as poet Gwendolyn Bennett and artist Aaron Douglas—who sought to further their education at the Foundation and beyond. It is this important and lesser-known chapter of the Barnes Foundation’s history that Isaac Julien—with his distinguished career as a maker of deeply compelling and thoughtful video installations, his sustained commitment to investigating African diasporic politics and culture, and his abiding interest in the Harlem Renaissance—is bringing to light.”
Following its debut at the Barnes, Once Again (Statues Never Die) will be presented during the Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present in the United Arab Emirates in March 2023.
The Barnes has engaged cultural partners across Philadelphia, including The Fabric Workshop and Museum; Institute for Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania; and BlackStar Projects to present other works by Isaac Julien during the run of Isaac Julien: Once Again (Statues Never Die) and beyond. Related programming is listed below. Visit the website for more details.
The Fabric Workshop and Museum In Focus: Isaac Julien August 16, 2022–April 2023 On view in the First Floor Gallery, In Focus: Isaac Julien presents a selection of works from the museum's permanent collection displayed in conversation with Julien’s Paradise (Omeros) #2, a photographic multiple created for The Fabric Workshop and Museum in 2002.
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania Poetic Cinema: Isaac Julien and the Sankofa Film and Video Collective Curated by Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Live Arts at the Annenberg Center, and BlackStar Projects. A programmatic series of three works, developed in concert with artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien, from the Sankofa Film and Video Collective screened in-person at Penn Live Arts at the Annenberg Center and the Prince Theater. Each screening will be accompanied by a conversation between a scholar and artist or filmmaker providing context and building on the works presented.
Looking for Langston (1989, 45 min) June 13, 2022 Prince Theater Guest speakers in conversation: Isaac Julien, artist and filmmaker; Kaja Silverman, Katherine Stein Sachs CW'69 and Keith L. Sachs W'67 Professor Emerita of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania; and Ja'Tovia Gary, artist and filmmaker.
Territories (1984, 25 min) and Who Killed Colin Roach (1983, 35 min) July 11, 2022 Prince Theater Guest speakers in conversation: Maori Karmael Holmes, CEO & Artistic Director of BlackStar Projects & Thomas Allen Harris, Senior Lecturer, African American Studies & Film and Media Studies, Yale University.
The Passion of Remembrance (1986, 80 min), newly restored and premiering as a 4K version August 3, 2022 In conjunction with the BlackStar Film Festival. Zellerbach Theater, Penn Live Arts, Annenberg Center Guest speakers in conversation: Karen Alexander, writer, educator and freelance curator & Louis Massiah, documentary filmmaker and Founder/Director of Scribe Video Center.
BARNES RELATD PROGRAMMING:
Barnes on the Block Sunday, June 19, 4–8:30 pm Presented by PNC Arts Alive, and in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia, Barnes on the Block returns for another round of outdoor fun for the entire family. This year’s event coincides with Juneteenth, Father’s Day, and the opening of Isaac Julien: Once Again (Statues Never Die). Meet us on the Parkway for visual art displays, live performances, food trucks, a beer garden, and more.
First Friday! Friday, July 1, 6–9 pm
PECO Free First Sunday Family Day Sunday, July 3, 10am–5 pm
Exhibition Tours Thursday–Monday, beginning in June 1 pm
Education Initiatives
Online Class: Understanding Video Art Instructor: Matthew C. Feliz, Lecturer, Bryn Mawr College July (dates will be listed on website) Explore key works of video art and learn about the theories behind them. This is a four-week class that takes place online.
Workshop: Isaac Julien In Focus Instructor: TK Smith, curator and writer Tuesday, August 2, 10 am–4 pm This one-day workshop, at the Barnes, explores key works in Julien’s oeuvre leading up to Once Again (Statues Never Die). Students will have access to the exhibition.
Community Engagement
Barnes West Barnes Presents! Harlem Renaissance in Review August 18, 5:30 pm Jazz performance at Saunders Park in West Philadelphia featuring classic Harlem Renaissance standards.
EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION
Created and directed by Isaac Julien, and co-written with Martina Klich, Once Again (Statues Never Die) is commissioned by the Barnes Foundation and the Ford Foundation, with additional support from the Sharjah Art Foundation, Linda Pace Foundation, Carol Weinbaum & The University of California, Santa Cruz. This exhibition is presented at the Barnes Foundation and curated by Thom Collins, Neubauer Family Executive Director and President. Advisors to the project are Dan Hicks, Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum; Jeffrey C. Stewart, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke and MacArthur Foundation Chair and Distinguished Professor of Black Studies at UC Santa Barbara; curator, filmmaker, and writer Mark Nash; and Chika Okeke-Agulu, a Nigerian-born artist and scholar based in Princeton, New Jersey. The work is executive produced by Mark Nash and produced by Andrew Fierberg.
ABOUT ISAAC JULIEN
Isaac Julien, CBE RA (b. London, 1960), is a filmmaker and installation artist who currently lives and works between London and California. His multi-screen film installations and photographs incorporate different artistic disciplines to create a poetic and unique visual language. His 1989 documentary-drama exploring author Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance titled Looking for Langston garnered Julien a cult following, while his 1991 debut feature Young Soul Rebels won the Semaine de la Critique prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Julien has participated in the Venice Biennale; the Gwangju Biennial, South Korea; Prospect 1, New Orleans; Performa 07, New York; and documenta 11, Kassel. His work is held in significant collections around the world. Julien has taught extensively, holding posts such as Chair of Global Art at University of the Arts London (2014–2016) and Professor of Media Art at Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany (2008–2016). He is the recipient of the James Robert Brudner ’83 Memorial Prize and Lectures at Yale University (2016). Most recently he received the Charles Wollaston Award (2017), for most distinguished work at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and in 2018 he was made a Royal Academician. Julien was awarded the title Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s birthday honors, 2017. In 2022, he was awarded the prestigious Goslarer Kaiserring Award.
Isaac Julien is Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California Santa Cruz, where he leads the Isaac Julien Lab together with critic and curator, Mark Nash. The Isaac Julien Lab was designed to mirror the Isaac Julien Studio in London and is a platform where students learn about the strategies behind the production of moving images, photographic works, exhibitions and publications. The Lab aims to create innovative pedagogical methodologies, visual and sonic languages for production, exhibition and installation while examining the various aspects that concern contemporary artists and curators working in the field of media art and moving image, in relationship to current modes of research, development, exhibition, production and scenography of moving image artworks.
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