Isaac Julien

Isaac Julien was born in 1960 in London, where he currently lives and works. While studying painting and fine art film at St Martin’s School of Art from which he graduated in 1984, Isaac Julien co-founded ‘Sankofa Film and Video Collective’ in which he was active from 1983–1992. He was also a founding member of Normal Films in 1991.

Isaac Julien is as acclaimed for his fluent, arresting films as for his vibrant and inventive gallery installations. One of the objectives of his work is to break down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting them to construct a powerfully visual narrative.

Julien came to prominence in the film world with his 1989 drama-documentary “Looking for Langston”, gaining a cult following with this poetic exploration of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. During the past three decades he has made work largely, though not exclusively, for galleries and museums, using multi-screen installations to express fractured narratives exploring memory and desire.

Julien was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001 for his films “The Long Road to Mazatlán” (1999), made in collaboration with Javier de Frutos and “Vagabondia” (2000), choreographed by Javier de Frutos. Earlier works include “Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask” (1996) and “Young Soul Rebels” (1991) which was awarded the Semaine de la Critique Prize at the Cannes Film Festival the same year.