John Akomfrah's The Unfinished Conversation on display at Tate Britain

11 October 2021

From 13 October 2021, John Akomfrah's The Unfinished Conversation (2012) will be on show at Tate Britain in a new collection display titled 'Sixty Years: The Unfinished Conversation'. Based around and titled after Akomfrah's film work on the British cultural theorist and activist, Stuart Hall, the display explores the evolving nature of diasporic identity through art from Tate’s collection. Rooted in Hall's outlook of identity as being full of possibilities, 'Sixty Years: The Unfinished Conversation' seeks to present a sense of pluralism, that all identities, beliefs and differences are accepted, respected and ongoing.

The Unfinished Conversation is a three-screen video installation that explores the multi-layered and ever-evolving subject of identity through an exploration of the memories and archives of Stuart Hall (1932–2014). The film is narrated in a non-linear format and unfolds over three screens, bringing up a variety of disparate footage simultaneously. This process examines the nature of the visual as triggered across an individual’s memory. Extracted images from news footage of the 1960s, alongside Hall’s personal home videos and photographs, are presented to merge the past, present and future.

The display's assistant curator, Aïcha Mehrez, will lead an Instagram Live walkthrough on Tuesday 12 October. Click here to join, and find further information on the display here.

Image © Smoking Dogs Films