Razik Darji

Born and raised in Hackney by a deaf mother, Razik Darji ‘had to learn how to listen without sound’. It’s this experience which he cites as the beginning of his interest in the arts as it changed how he understood storytelling, seeing it as being ‘less about words, more about presence’.

A creative technologist, he is particularly intrigued by the areas in which ‘tech meets culture [and] emotion meets code’, with an interest that is not solely centred on aesthetics, but ‘in disruption, in creating something that expands what’s possible and makes people feel more’. Among the artists who inspire and influence Darji’s work are ‘interdisciplinary visionaries’ such as Gabriel Moses, Virgil Abloh, Es Devlin, Kendrick Lamar and Pharrell Williams. 

‘The first time I ever gave a talk in front of a large audience was at the Southbank Centre. It was scary and exciting, but that moment made me realise I was on the right path.’

Darji was drawn to curation through his want ‘to make things that move people’ and a love of ‘crafting atmospheres which shape how people feel, pause and connect.’ His curatorial work to date has seen him using emerging technology in unexpected ways, including a real-time AI installation for Chanel, and his own immersive event within All Points East. Darji sees curation as ‘modern-day architecture’ in which ‘you’re designing emotion in space; it’s worldbuilding with purpose’.

As someone who neither studied art, nor went to university, Darji has often felt ‘like an outsider looking in, like I didn’t belong in these places,’ and so he sees his involvement in Southbank Centre Presents as ‘proof that I do belong and that people like me can break through’. Through his involvement in the programme he aims to test boundaries – ‘of form, of medium, of self’ – and discover new collaborations. His ultimate aim is to ‘leave the blueprint different to how we found it’.