ISAAC JULIEN

Conceived by gres art 671 and curated by Nathan Ladd, MUSEUM DREAMS has been developed specifically for the architectural and conceptual structure of the Bergamo space. Bringing together five major large-scale installations, Once Again . . . (Statues Never Die) (2022); Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement (2019); Baltimore (2002); Vagabondia (2000); The Long Road to Mazatlán (1999), MUSEUM DREAMS draws on more than three decades of Julien’s practice, highlighting his distinctive approach of working across disciplines including film, dance, photography, music, and sculpture.

With his poetic language, Julien constructs carefully layered narratives that examine desire, social memory and museum histories, offering a critical framework for interrogating and interpreting both historical and contemporary events. At gres art 671, Julien deconstructs the museum spaces as living, active participants in the parcours of his film installations. MUSEUM DREAMS reflects on the architectural settings in which moving image works are presented and preserved – both institutionally and in the repository of our own experiences – foregrounding questions of our time memory through five immersive film installations, alongside sculptures, artefacts, photographs and archival material.

Through this assemblage of works, viewers are invited to become what Julien describes as a “mobile spectator,” moving freely across kaleidoscopic installations where image, sound, and architecture converge. The exhibition unfolds as a sensorial encounter that goes beyond limitations of classification, creating the language of images that disrupts the narrative logic which shapes our everyday perception.

Sir Isaac Julien, RA (born 1960) is a critically acclaimed British artist and filmmaker. In 2018, Julien joined the faculty at the University of California Santa Cruz where he is a Distinguished Professor of the Arts and leads the Moving Image Lab together with Arts Professor Mark Nash.

He has been making films and producing film installations for over forty years, including All That Changes You. Metamorphosis (2025), Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (2022), Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement (2019), Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass (2019), Stones Against Diamonds (2015), PLAYTIME (2014), Ten Thousand Waves (2010), Western Union: small boats (2007), Fantôme Afrique (2005), True North (2004), Baltimore (2003), Paradise Omeros (2002), Vagabondia (2000), and Long Road to Mazatlán (1999).

Current and recent international solo exhibitions include Isaac Julien: All That Changes You. Metamorphosis, Palazzo TE, Mantua, Italy (2025–2026); Isaac Julien: I Dream a World, de Young Museum, San Francisco, USA (2025); Isaac Julien: A Marvellous Entanglement, São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo, Brazil (2025); Isaac Julien: Once Again…(Statues Never Die), Aaarhus, Denmark (2025) Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (2024); Isaac Julien: Once Again…(Statues Never Die), Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (2024); Isaac Julien: Once Again…(Statues Never Die), Whitney Biennale, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (2024); Isaac Julien: What Freedom Is To Me, Tate Britain, London, UK; touring to K21, Dusseldorf, Germany; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, The Netherlands (2023-24).

Julien is the recipient of The Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award 2017, and a Kaiserring Goslar Award in 2022. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2022 Birthday Honours.

images:

• Isaac Julien, O que é um museu? / What is a Museum? (Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement), 2019. © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
• Isaac Julien, Once Again… (Statues Never Die), 2022. Installation view, What Freedom Means to Me, Tate Britain, 2023. Photo Jack Hems
 © Isaac Julien. 
Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro