Dub Encyclopaedia Opening Preview Antonio José Guzman & Iva Jankovic

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Join us for the exhibition opening preview of Dub Encyclopaedia!

Dub Encyclopaedia is an immersive installation by artists Antonio José Guzman and Iva Jankovic, opening at the Stuart Hall Library on 13 June 2025 presented by iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts).

Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic are Netherlands-based artists whose collaborative practice weaves together indigo-dyed textiles, sound, and performance to explore colonial legacies, migration, and diasporic identity. Drawing on diverse musical traditions, including dub and punk, their immersive installations and live works evoke the emotional resonance of displacement and cultural memory. Through patterned fabrics inspired by DNA sequencing and vernacular motifs, Guzman and Jankovic map global connections across the Black Atlantic, using indigo as a symbolic material to examine the transatlantic slave trade and the movement of people, knowledge, and ritual.

Drawing on the radical tradition of dub poetry, Dub Encyclopaedia maps diasporic journeys through textiles, sound, and archival traces. The centrepiece of the exhibition is a nomadic tent constructed from indigo ajrak fabrics and houses poems, books, soundscapes, and archival materials. Through this constellation of media, the artists explore storytelling, pedagogy, and resilience in the context of global migration and vernacular memory.

Presented as part of the Concrete Roots series for the Liverpool Biennial 2025, Dub Encyclopaedia marks the artists’ first solo presentation in the UK. Following a performance at the Biennial, two hand-crafted dresses featured in the live piece will travel to London, forming part of the exhibition narrative at iniva’s Stuart Hall Library.