On 27 February 2025, Buro Stedelijk debuts Manifestation #54: Shifting / Spirit / Time, an ambitious new multi-screen film installation by acclaimed poet, artist, and filmmaker Julianknxx. Known for his extensive research and commitment to (re)visiting places and people for collaboration, this latest work builds on the artist’s performance Chorus in Flight presented in May 2024 on the steps of the Stedelijk Museum with the Memoria Collective, conducted by Elique Curiel.

Transforming it into a living, evolving memory, Shifting / Spirit / Time weaves past and present through fresh footage and reimagined elements, exploring how repetition and reflection shape the growth of both art and memory. This poetic encounter expands into a powerful new installation, offering a rich sensory experience where poetry, song, and moving-image converge.

Through repetition, Julianknxx transforms sound into material, inviting audiences to consider how memory, language, and culture echo through generations. A single repeated refrain – Wai Wai Wai – binds the choral voices together, underscoring how sound and attunement can enable the survival of cultural memory. Here, the rhythmic chant becomes a meditation, a celebration, and a reminder of the ways in which sound and rhythm can connect us across time and space.

Themes of connection, loss, generational inheritance, and belonging create a layered narrative that moves from poem to song, from sound to stance, transforming Wai into Way. Drawing inspiration from Fred Moten’s words —We are sent in history, we send history— Julianknxx explores how sound and collective memory can transcend borders and historical divides, prompting viewers to ask: How do you move a poem from the page into the visual space? Give it texture, sound, that emotion. The choir becomes a metaphor for community and encourages new perspectives on what it means to be caught between, and to be of, multiple places.

This commission positions European thought as a crossroads, engaging intellectual inquiries that span Africa, the Caribbean, and North America while challenging national borders and dominant narratives. More than a visual artwork, the manifestation is a ritual—a sacred act of remembrance, a space where grief and memory are cradled, honoured, and allowed to breath.

In ode to the birthplace of the artist’s earlier work Chorus in Rememory of Flight first presented at the Barbican Curve in London in 2023, a fresh chapter unfolds in Shifting / Spirit / Time, with the presentation of And If a Tree Sees It All – a new video installation weaving poetry and cinematic meditation. At its heart stands De boom die alles zag (The Tree Which Saw Everything) – a steadfast sentinel of Amsterdam Southeast. For thirty years, this tree has borne silent testimony to the Bijlmermeer disaster, its enduring presence a poignant emblem of resilience, collective sorrow, and the intertwined histories of a mourning community. For this presentation, a new edit has been made including material shot in Amsterdam in May 2024.

Manifestation #54: Shifting / Spirit / Time promises to be a landmark moment in contemporary art, encouraging deep listening, cultural reflection, and new ways of experiencing history through sound and movement.

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