Isaac Julien's Sci-Fi Fantasy Takes Over Italian Palace
Starring Gwendoline Christie and Sheila Atim.
Summary
- British filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien opens his new work, “All That Changes You. Metamorphosis.,” at Palazzo Te in Mantua, Italy
- Shot and presented in the palace’s frescoed halls, the film follows two goddess-like deities, Gwendoline Christie and Sheila Atim, as they journey through time and space
Amidst the titanic frescoes of Palazzo Te, Mantua’s 16th-century mannerist masterpiece, British artist Isaac Julien orchestrates a celestial symphony with “All That Changes You. Metamorphosis.,” his new 10-screen film installation.
Set in the future, the piece follows Gwendoline Christie and Sheila Atim who play two space-traveling goddesses, as they venture through various eras and architectures: from the Palazzo’s ornate chambers, to a glassy “spaceship” adrift in the English countryside and Herzog and de Meuron’s sleek, Napa Valley pavilion. Built environment grounds and enlivens the work as a main character, casting the palace’s grandeur in an curious, contemporary light.
In spite of its airy aesthetic serenity, “All That Changes You. Metamorphosis.,” is no easy pill to swallow, with social inequality and ecological collapse at its heart. Drawing on the speculative visions of techno-theorist Donna Haraway and Octavia E. Butler’s seminal epic, Parable of The Sower, the artist constructs a post-human cosmos that reconsiders interspecies empathy and haunting question of co-existence.
While the road is long and hard, Julien does away with apocalyptic clichés in favor of something more iridescent — akin to the surrounding “Fall of the Giants” fresco by the Palazzo’s artist and architect Giulio Romano. Ordinary people uniting in the name of collective transformation — metamorphosis — reminds us not only of the human capacity for imagination and action, but the very opulence of possibility.
“All That Changes You. Metamorphosis.,” is now on view in Mantua, Italy through February 1, 2026.
Palazzo Te
Viale Te, 13,
46100 Mantova MN,
Italy
