Eliel Jones
Writing and Curating
Eliel Jones is the Curator of Performance and Time-based Media at KANAL – Centre Pompidou, a new interdisciplinary museum of modern and contemporary art due to open in Brussels in 2025. His research interests and methodologies stem from intersectional approaches to queer and feminist discourse and are guided by his involvement in direct community action and solidarity. Prior to KANAL he was the Curator of the second edition of the Brent Biennial, titled ‘In the House of my Love’ (2022), and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic he curated ‘Queer Correspondence’, a mail-art initiative that reached nearly 1000 subscribers in 42 countries through monthly letter-sized commissioned projects by artists and writers. Between 2016 and 2021 he held curatorial positions at Chisenhale Gallery and Cell Project Space (both in London), where he worked towards realising multidisciplinary commissions by emerging artists, including Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Maeve Brennan, Luke Willis Thompson, Hannah Black, Lydia Ourahmane, Paul Maheke, Krzysztof Baginski, Carlos Maria Romero (AKA Atabey Mamasita) and Joseph Funnell, amongst others. His independent curatorial projects include: ‘Gelare Khosghozaran – To Be the Author of One’s Own Travels’, Delfina Foundation, London; ‘do you host?’, Ujazdowski Castle CCA, Warsaw; ‘Acts of Translation’, Mohammed and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation, Jordan; and ‘Experiments on Public Space’, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas. Jones has written over a hundred pieces of criticism on contemporary art and performance for various international platforms and publications, including e-flux Criticism, Artforum, Frieze, The Guardian, Flash Art, Mousse and X-TRA. He is an Associate Lecturer on various Fine Art and Curating courses, including at Kingston School Art (MFA Fine Art) and Chelsea College of Art (MA Curating and Collections); a Trustee at PEER UK; and a Selection Committee Member for the LUX Moving Image Collection.