Uploaded June 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Join poet and artist Khairani Barokka and curator Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz for this conversation about Khairani’s new work ‘[Molekuler]’.
This new work consists of poetry and images that weave together narratives from headlines, histories and personal experiences during the pandemic. ‘[Molekuler]’ critiques the notion of what was ‘hidden’ during the Covid-19 pandemic. Accessibility is creatively woven into the work, with the poems describing the images.
Bárbara and Khairani will talk about the making of the work and will explore intertwined stories, from colonial legacies to today’s health inequities. Khairani will also read extracts from the work alongside sharing some of the images. The speakers will self-describe and describe visual elements of the event.
‘[Molekuler]’ was commissioned by Wellcome Collection as part of a programme of new artworks for the collection interrogating the impact of the UK government Covid-19 campaign ‘Stay at Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives’.
About your contributors
Khairani Barokka
Speaker
Khairani Barokka (b. Jakarta, 1985) is a writer, poet and artist in London. She’s a practice-based researcher, whose work centres disability justice as anti-colonial praxis. Among her honours, she was an NYU Tisch Departmental Fellow for her Masters at ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program), and Indonesia’s first Writer-In-Residence at Vermont Studio Center. She was Modern Poetry in Translation’s Inaugural Poet-in-Residence, and is currently Research Fellow at University of the Arts London’s Decolonising Arts Institute, Associate Artist at the National Centre for Writing (Norwich, UK) and Associate Artist at Delfina Foundation.
Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz
Host
Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz is a curator at Wellcome Collection, London. Her exhibitions include ‘This is a Voice’ (2016), ‘Bedlam’ (co-curated with Mike Jay, 2016), ‘Ayurvedic Man’ (2018), ‘Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery: Misbehaving Bodies’ (co-curated with George Vasey, 2019 –20) and ‘Un encuentro vegetal’/‘Rooted Beings’ (forthcoming: La Casa Encendida/Wellcome Collection). Bárbara is Guest Editor of the anthology ‘Documents of Contemporary Art: HEALTH’ (2020). She has written for Afterall, Concreta, Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, MARG and Mousse Publishing. She holds a Masters in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London.
Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/wellcomecollection
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/explorewellcome
See us on Instagram: instagram.com/wellcomecollection
Join poet and artist Khairani Barokka and curator Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz for this conversation about Khairani’s new work ‘[Molekuler]’.
This new work consists of poetry and images that weave together narratives from headlines, histories and personal experiences during the pandemic. ‘[Molekuler]’ critiques the notion of what was ‘hidden’ during the Covid-19 pandemic. Accessibility is creatively woven into the work, with the poems describing the images.
Bárbara and Khairani will talk about the making of the work and will explore intertwined stories, from colonial legacies to today’s health inequities. Khairani will also read extracts from the work alongside sharing some of the images. The speakers will self-describe and describe visual elements of the event.
‘[Molekuler]’ was commissioned by Wellcome Collection as part of a programme of new artworks for the collection interrogating the impact of the UK government Covid-19 campaign ‘Stay at Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives’.
About your contributors
Khairani Barokka
Speaker
Khairani Barokka (b. Jakarta, 1985) is a writer, poet and artist in London. She’s a practice-based researcher, whose work centres disability justice as anti-colonial praxis. Among her honours, she was an NYU Tisch Departmental Fellow for her Masters at ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program), and Indonesia’s first Writer-In-Residence at Vermont Studio Center. She was Modern Poetry in Translation’s Inaugural Poet-in-Residence, and is currently Research Fellow at University of the Arts London’s Decolonising Arts Institute, Associate Artist at the National Centre for Writing (Norwich, UK) and Associate Artist at Delfina Foundation.
Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz
Host
Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz is a curator at Wellcome Collection, London. Her exhibitions include ‘This is a Voice’ (2016), ‘Bedlam’ (co-curated with Mike Jay, 2016), ‘Ayurvedic Man’ (2018), ‘Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery: Misbehaving Bodies’ (co-curated with George Vasey, 2019 –20) and ‘Un encuentro vegetal’/‘Rooted Beings’ (forthcoming: La Casa Encendida/Wellcome Collection). Bárbara is Guest Editor of the anthology ‘Documents of Contemporary Art: HEALTH’ (2020). She has written for Afterall, Concreta, Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, MARG and Mousse Publishing. She holds a Masters in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London.
Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/wellcomecollection
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/explorewellcome
See us on Instagram: instagram.com/wellcomecollection
