Richard Mosse: The Enclave
The Nasher Museum presented Richard Mosse’s The Enclave, an immersive 40-minute six-channel video installation shot in eastern Congo.
The Central African nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo has endured nearly two decades of political instability, rampant corruption and an ongoing civil war. Artist Richard Mosse spent several years travelling there and taking photographs with an aerial surveillance film called Kodak Aerochrome. Developed by the U.S. military during World War II to identify camouflaged targets, this film registers an invisible spectrum of infrared light, transforming the green foliage of the landscape into vivid shades of pink, lavender and crimson. Using this distinct medium, Mosse and his collaborators, cinematographer Trevor Tweeten and composer Ben Frost, embedded themselves into armed Congolese rebel groups and captured footage of daily life in the region. The Enclave, a kaleidoscopic multi-channel video and sound installation, is the culmination of this work. It is a beautiful and haunting look at a region of Africa that has been plagued by civil war, political instability and humanitarian crises for decades. The work debuted at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, where Mosse represented Ireland, and was on view in the Southeast for the first time at the Nasher Museum.
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Richard Mosse, Safe From Harm, a member of Mai Mai Yakutumba in a scene from The Enclave showing a simulated battle sequence performed by this rebel group in Fizi, South Kivu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, 2012. © Richard Mosse. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
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Richard Mosse, The Enclave (film still), 2012-13. 16mm infrared film transferred to HD video, 39 minutes 25 seconds. Produced in North and South Kivu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. © Richard Mosse. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
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Richard Mosse, The Enclave (film still), 2012-13. 16mm infrared film transferred to HD video, 39 minutes 25 seconds. Produced in North and South Kivu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. © Richard Mosse. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
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Richard Mosse, Untitled Transient (film still), 2012. Digital c-print, 40 x 50 inches. 41 1/2 x 51 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches (framed). © Richard Mosse. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
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Installation view of Richard Mosse: The Enclave. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
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Installation view of Richard Mosse: The Enclave. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
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Installation view of Richard Mosse: The Enclave. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.
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Artist Richard Mosse visits the Nasher Museum, posing outside in front of the large banner promoting his solo exhibition, Richard Mosse: The Enclave. In the background, a Duke campus bus decorated with a mural created by Odili Donald Odita and the logo Nasher10 bus drives past. Photo by J Caldwell.
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Artist Richard Mosse chats with visitors at the Nasher Museum during the opening event. Photo by J Caldwell.
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Artist Richard Mosse (left) chats with (left to right) former Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead, Nasher Board of Advisors Member Cynthia Brodhead and Duke Professor Richard J. Powell. Photo by J Caldwell.
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Visitors watch Richard Mosse's work, The Enclave, a six-channel video on view in a single pavilion. Photo by J Caldwell.
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A visitor takes a photo within Richard Mosse's work, The Enclave, a six-channel video on view in a single pavilion. Photo by J Caldwell.
Richard Mosse was born in 1980 in Ireland and is based in New York. He earned an MFA in photography from the Yale School of Art in 2008 and a postgraduate diploma in fine art from Goldsmiths, London, in 2005. Mosse has exhibited at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami; the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; the Dublin Contemporary Biennial and the Tate Modern, London. In 2014 he was the recipient of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.
The presentation of Richard Mosse: The Enclave at the Nasher Museum was made possible by Trent Carmichael, Katie Thorpe Kerr and Terrance I. R. Kerr, Lisa Lowenthal Pruzan and Jonathan Pruzan, Caroline and Arthur Rogers, and Gail M.D. Belvett.
Related Reading
Learn more about artist Richard Mosse from a cover story in the journal Cultural Politics, published by Duke University Press.