Isaac Julien. All That Changes You. Metamorphosis

The multi-screen film installation All That Changes You. Metamorphosis by Isaac Julien fits as an immersive and poetic experience within the frescoed spaces of Palazzo TeIt calls into dialogue past and present, myth and contemporaneity. The two protagonists, Sheila Atim e Gwendoline Christie, take on the role of otherworldly figures emerging directly from the walls of the building, like goddesses inhabiting the visual metamorphoses of time. The project stems from a shared idea with Mark Nash and feeds on philosophical and literary references, from Donna Haraway to Octavia E. Butler, working on concepts of transformation, memory, ecology and non-linear time.

In the filmic journey, the goddesses traverse deeply evocative environments - from the Cosmic House of Charles Jencks in London to the forests of Redwood National Park in California - to architectural spaces such as glass pavilions or installations designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Each set is charged with its own symbolic identity: the Renaissance palace, the postmodern dwelling, the futuristic space, dialogue with each other as visual stations of a journey through epochs and visions.

The installation - distributed on ten screens - breaks the traditional narrative: images and architecture intertwine in a visual choreography that suspends time and reconfigures vision. Julien does not use Palazzo Te as a mere backdrop, but as an active subject: the palazzo becomes part of the aesthetic and conceptual device. In this "visual resistance", memory, poetry and imagination converge, in a proposal that challenges the dominant visual hegemony and offers a alternative imagery for the present and the future.

From an exhibition point of view, the work is placed in the Fruitcakes renovated palace and will be open to visitors in settings that alternate visual introspection and poetic openness. The initiative is part of the celebrations for the Cinquecentenary of Palazzo Te and aims to redefine the role of the palazzo as a living place of dialogue between history and the future.