. ZARA JULIUS
artist | researcher | selector

about/cv/press

about / cv / press

 

image by Andile Buka

Zara Julius (b. 1992 Johannesburg) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and cultural worker based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is also the founder of Pan-African creative research and cultural storytelling agency, KONJO. Her practice is informed by her working methodology of ‘rapture’, and is concerned with the relationship between Black performativity, frequency, concealment and fugitivity in the settler (post) colony, with a special focus on what we call the ‘Global South’. Working with sound, video, performance and image-based installation, Zara Julius’ practice involves the collection, selection, collage and creation of archives (real, imagined and embodied) through extensive research projects. She is especially engaged in thinking through the internal workings of the Black sonic, and how they might help us reconstitute time (pasts, presents, futures) in the face of various unfreedoms. Much of Zara’s work grapples with the logics of intimate, museological and liberation archiving and history-making practices. Furthermore, many of her projects have focused on mapping the sonic and spiritual mobilities of spiritual rapture and rupture with congregants of syncretic traditions, and on (post)apartheid / (post)colonial narratives around race, place and time.

Zara holds a BAHons in social anthropology from the University of Cape Town (2014) and a MAFA in Fine Art by Research and Practice from the University of the Witwatersrand (2021). Zara has exhibited her work across South Africa and internationally. She has been awarded artist residencies in Colombia, Denmark, Austria, South Africa, and most recently she was a guest resident at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in the Netherlands. Zara is currently a researcher and artist in residence as part of the Pressing Matter project at the National Museum of World Cultures (Netherlands), and at the Oscillations project at the Akademie der Künste (Germany), the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape (South Africa), and Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Her debut solo exhibition is currently on show at the Weltmuseum Vienna (April 2023 - April 2024).

As a vinyl selector, Zara’s sets reflect her desire to travel land, seas and time. Her collection explores organic and bass heavy sounds from Africa and the Diaspora. She selects vinyl regularly in Southern Africa, most notably at The Orbit Jazz Club, MTN Bushfire, Rocking the Daisies, Red Bull Music Festival and AFROPUNK Johannesburg. In 2017, Zara toured London, being hosted by Touching Bass, Balamii radio, Hoxton FM, and Total Refreshment Centre. She has played alongside artists such as Nubya Garcia, Madala Kunene, Shabaka Hutchings, BLK JKS, DJ Kenzhero, Andrew Ashong & DJ Spinna. Zara has also gigged in Cuba and Colombia. In 2017, Zara created KONJO with Paul WaxOn - a recurring live music event where she curates parties with a Pan African focus.