6:00 PM – 7:30 PM

Join Julien Creuzet and exhibition curators Céline Kopp and Kate Kraczon for a conversation about the Attila cataract your source at the feet of the green peaks will end up in the great sea blue abyss we drowned in the tidal tears of the moon, which was originated for the French Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale and reimagined for The Bell / Brown Arts Institute (BAI). 

Participants:

• Julien Creuzet, Artist, poet, and musician
• Céline Kopp, Director, Le Magasin - Centre National d'Art Contemporain Grenoble
• Kate Kraczon, Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions, The Bell / Brown Arts Institute

RSVP FOR the opening keynote

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Introductory remarks by J.M. Nimocks & Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose, PhD Students in the Department of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University

9:30 AM – 11:00 AM

This panel explores the intersections of language, form, and visual culture in Caribbean and Afro-diasporic artistic production through the work of Julien Creuzet, emphasizing how his technical methods and aesthetic strategies engage with broader global art historical contexts. Central to the discussion is Créolité (creolisation), a dynamic process of cultural synthesis and hybridity that generates distinct languages, artistic forms, and aesthetics integral to Caribbean cultural identities and artistic practices.The panel will explore how literature, visual art, and performance convey the nuances of this hybrid space, with a specific focus on artists' innovative engagements in formal experimentation and sensory experiences. 

Drawing on frameworks such as the Black Atlantic and emphasizing the Caribbean Sea as a vibrant site for cultural exchange, the panel focuses on the work of Julien Creuzet, whose work demonstrates remarkable plasticity by blending colors, textures, rhythms, and forms into richly immersive compositions. Particular attention will be given to the conceptual depth and material poetry of his artistic practice, analysing how formal innovation and technical strategies poetically unsettle cultural boundaries and enliven aesthetic reprieve.

Participants:

• Julien Creuzet, Artist, poet, and musician
• Anny-Dominique Curtius, Professor of Francophone Studies, University of Iowa
• Tianren Luo, Ph.D Student, Department of Comparative Literature, Brown University
• Mame-Fatou Niang, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies; Director-Founder of the Center for Black European Studies and the Atlantic (CBESA), Carnegie Mellon University
• Moderator: Avishek Ganguly, Associate Professor, Literary Arts and Studies, Rhode Island School of Design

11:15 AM – 12:45 PM

This panel engages with concepts of place, relationality, and hauntology, drawing on the intersections of coloniality, memory, and spectral presence. The discussion examines how specific landscapes and histories are affected by imperial aggression and ecological disruption. By situating the work of Julien Creuzet alongside other relevant media and artists, the interplay among Movement, Material, Sound, Language, and Memory frames a conversation about the aesthetics of haunted life in the diaspora. The panelists will explore hauntology as a framework for conjuring forgotten or suppressed narratives and for articulating the ghostly atmosphere of colonial empire and its afterlives.

Participants:

• Julien Creuzet, Artist, poet, and musician
• Yasmina Price, Writer and film programmer, PhD Candidate,Yale University
• David Carré, PhD Student, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Rutgers University
• Ana Pi, Choreographer and imagery artist, extemporary dancer, pedagogue, space maker, and writer
• Moderators: J.M. Nimocks, PhD Student, Department of Modern Culture and Media,  Brown University, and Jordan Taliha McDonald, PhD candidate, Department of English and Department of the History of Science, Harvard University

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM

African and Caribbean spiritual traditions play a crucial role in the art of Julien Creuzet. This session of the symposium explores this dimension of his work and thus questions the secular limitations of Western colonial models of arts. In what ways do the multiple forms of Afro-diasporic spirituality animate the artistic practice of Julien Creuzet? What do they allow in terms of creation? What aesthetic boundaries do they challenge? What dimensions of reality and heritage do they make visible and audible for us today?

Participants:

• Julien Creuzet, Artist, poet, and musician
• Anissa Touati, Visiting Researcher, French Studies, Brown University
• Mohamed Amer Meziane, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Brown University
• Sabine Lamour, Visiting Professor, French and Francophone Studies, Brown University; Professor of Sociology, Université d'État d'Haïti
• Moderators: Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose, PhD Student, Department of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University, and Alyssa Mattocks, Independent Curator and Writer, New York

RSVP FOR THE PANELS

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

This roundtable discussion explores the innovative sonic strategies and performance modalities deployed by contemporary creatives seeking to “sound” the diaspora, including Creuzet and his use of immersive soundscapes. Through conversation and listening together, participants will reflect on how music, sound, and rhythm mediate the histories / futures of the Caribbean, broader diasporas, and the African continent. 

This conversation is presented in collaboration with the Black Music Lab, a project housed within the Brown Arts Institute that centers the deep study and celebration of black musico-cultural and sound-based traditions, particularly those that remain underrepresented within academic musical spaces despite their overwhelming sonic influence and popularity across the broader global soundscape.

Participants:

• Julien Creuzet, Artist, poet, and musician
• Genevieve Allotey-Pappoe, Assistant Professor of Music, Brown University
• Alexandria Eregbu, Curator, artist, educator, and DJ
• Enongo A Lumumba-Kasongo, David S. Josephson Assistant Professor of Music, Brown University, rapper, beatmaker
• Alexander Weheliye, Malcolm S. Forbes Professor of Modern Culture and Media and Brown Arts Institute, Brown University

RSVP FOR THE ROUNDTABLE