Zara Julius

Zara Julius is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and vinyl selector 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 a working methodology of ‘rapture’, and is concerned with the relationship between 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 imagine new futures, and experience different present(s). 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 and presented her work across South Africa and internationally, including Simone Leigh’s Loophole of Retreat Venice (2022). She has been awarded artist residencies in Colombia, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and South Africa, and is currently a researcher and artist in residence as part of the Pressing Matter project at the National Museum of World Cultures (Netherlands), Rijkakademie and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her debut solo exhibition is currently on show at the Weltmuseum Vienna April 2023 – April 2024.