»The Enclave«
by Richard Mosse & Ben Frostmulti-media installation

Throughout 2012, Richard Mosse and his collaborators Trevor Tweeten and Ben Frost travelled in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, infiltrating armed rebel groups in a war zone. The resulting installation, »THE ENCLAVE«, is the culmination of Mosse’s attempt to radically rethink war photography, searching for more adequate strategies to represent a forgotten war in which 5.4 million people have died.
Mosse has used a discontinued military surveillance film to document, a medium that registers an invisible spectrum of infrared light, originally designed for camouflage detection. The resulting imagery, shot by Tweeten, renders the jungle war zone in disorientating psychedelic hues. Frost’s audio composition, comprised of organic Congolese field recordings, hovers bleakly over the unfolding tragedy.
Neither scripted nor directed, Congolese rebels return the camera’s predatory gaze in a distinctly confrontational and accusatory manner. The lens seems to mesmerise and provoke those it encounters in »THE ENCLAVE«, including rebels fighting under the command of those sought for trial by the International Criminal Court. This precarious face-off reveals inherent ambiguities of masculinity, defiance, vulnerability, and indictment.
»THE ENCLAVE« immerses the viewer in a challenging and sinister world, posing aesthetic questions in a situation of profound human suffering. At the heart of the project, as Mosse states, is an attempt to bring “two counter-worlds into collision: art’s potential to represent narratives so painful that they exist beyond language, and photography’s capacity to document specific tragedies and communicate them to the world.”
Stages:
Venice Biennale '1301.06. - 24.11.2013
Date | 01.06. - 24.11.2013 |
Action | installation as part of the Irish Pavillion |
Participants | Richard Mosse & Ben Frost |
Sponsoring Partners | Tone / DISK / ORF / musikprotokoll / Skaņu mežs |
Online References | http://www.ctm-festival.de/news/ecas-co-commission-the-enclave-opens-at-venice-biennale/ |
Unsound '13 - Interference13.10. - 20.10.2013
Date | 13.10. - 20.10.2013 |
Action | installation |
Participants | Richard Mosse & Ben Frost |
Sponsoring Partners | Tone / DISK / ORF / musikprotokoll / Skaņu mežs |
Online References | http://www.unsound.pl/interference/installations |
Press Coverage | http://www.electronicbeats.net/live-report-unsound-festival-2013/ |
Skaņu Mežs '1331.10. - 03.11.2013
Date | 31.10. - 03.11.2013 |
Action | installation |
Participants | Richard Mosse & Ben Frost |
Sponsoring Partners | Tone / DISK / ORF / musikprotokoll / Skaņu mežs |
Skaņu mežs'2013 festival booklet | |
Online References | http://www.skanumezs.lv/lv/2013/sonedel-tabakas-fabrika-bez-maksas-aplukojama-ricarda-mosa-un-bena-frosta-instalacija/ |
Press Coverage | http://fotokvartals.lv/2013/10/31/neredzamais-kars/ http://www.lsm.lv/lv/raksts/maksla/kultura/riiga-skatama-instalacija-par-karadarbiibu-kongo.a68677/ |
Musikprotokoll '14 27.09. - 12.10.2014
Date | 27.09. - 12.10.2014 |
Action | installation, discussion |
Location | Kunsthaus Graz - Space04 |
Participants | direction and production: Richard Mosse / film editing: Trevor Tweeten / sound design: Ben Frost |
Sponsoring Partners | ORF / musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst, Kunsthaus Graz, Tone / Unsound, DISK / CTM-Festival, Skaņu mežs |
musikprotokoll magazine 2014 | |
Audio |
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Online References | http://musikprotokoll.orf.at/de/ecas# The Enclave (german) |
Description | musikprotokoll showed the big, 6-screen-version. On 9th of October a panel discussion about the casus belli and the traumatas of the war in Kongo took place, moderated by Katrin Bucher Trantow and Kamdem Mou Poh a Hom (Chiala Graz). The participants were Rene Botsili Bosilo, Esperance-Francois Bulayumi and Daniel Diakiese. After the panel discussion there was a concert by Pascal Papy Lopongo. |