In September, ARoS will shine a light on its collection and a major new acquisition by one of the most significant artists and filmmakers working today, Sir Isaac Julien (b.1960, London).

Once again … (Statues never die) (2022) is Julien’s latest work and an outstanding example of his unique approach to installation. The film work is a portrait of Alain Locke (1885–1954), the philosopher, educator, and cultural theorist who was a leading figure in the rise of African-American cultural and intellectual life in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s as the father of the Harlem Renaissance. The film explores the relationship between Locke and one of the most significant collectors of African material culture in the twentieth century, Albert C. Barnes.

Julien’s film plays out across an installation of two back-projected screens which are reflected in the surrounding walls, on which panels of mylar mirror of the same dimensions are installed. They have the effect of doubling, sometime trebling the image, while troubling our gaze, reflecting it back on ourselves.

With this work, Julien returns to the museum as a site of critical reflection. He conceived of the work as a form of ‘poetic restitution’ that raises important questions about the collection, display and interpretation of ‘African art’ by European museums. The presentation at ARoS marks the premiere of the work in Denmark.