The first in a loose trilogy of film works, Rudiments, 2015, was made by Broomberg and Chanarin in collaboration with a group of young army cadets at a military camp on the outskirts of Liverpool. Whether the scenes are staged by the artists or are a document of the camp’s routine practice is unclear. The absurd and disturbing introduction of a Bouffon (Hannah Ringham) – a dark clown whose performance teeters on vulgarity – radically challenges the military codes and interrupts the cadets’ carefully choreographed routines. Broomberg & Chanarin’s film explores the formative moments of childhood and early youth in the presence of authority, and is propelled by a dramatic score devised for drums by the American musician Kid Millions.
Broomberg and Chanarin’s trilogy (2015-2019) is a meditation on the states of childhood, migration and revolution. The first part (Rudiments, 2015) is set in a military training base in Liverpool and follows the education of hundreds of young British cadets. The second part (The Bureaucracy of Angels, 2017) is set in the mediterranean and witnesses the rescue of a group of refugees from a deflated boat off the coast of Libya. The third and final part (Anniversary of a Revolution (Parsed), 2019) comprises of archival film clips uncovered in the Russian state archive and reimagine through the eyes of an AI algorithm searching for normal behaviour. In each part real life and historical events are interrupted by the presence of a fictional entity; the comic boufon, the animated digger and the flawed algorithm. These absurd characters work against the grain of Broomberg and Chanarin’s subject matter, creating uncomfortable and at times unacceptable juxtapositions. Music plays a central part, beginning with a 12 minute drum solo by the American percussionist Kid Millions; followed by an orchestral interpretation of Sicilian folk music performed by the the London Sinfoneta; and concluding with an improvisation for piano and theramin by Peter Broderick. Broomberg and Chanarin’s ambitious trilogy is a work of fiction and of society, that embraces competing and contradictory strategies to deliver an experience that is funny, tender and brutal.
About Broomberg & Chanarin
Adam Broomberg (born 1970, Johannesburg, South Africa) and Oliver Chanarin (born 1971, London, UK) are artists living and working between London and Berlin. They are professors of photography at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HFBK) in Hamburg and teach on the MA Photography & Society programme at The Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague which they co-designed. Together they have had numerous solo exhibitions most recently at The Centre Georges Pompidou (2018) and the Hasselblad Center (2017). Their participation in international group shows include the Yokohama Trienniale (2017), Documenta, Kassel (2017), The British Art Show 8 (2015-2017), Conflict, Time, Photography at Tate Modern (2015); Shanghai Biennale (2014); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Tate Britain (2014), and the Gwanju Biennale (2012). Their work is held in major public and private collections including Pompidou, Tate, MoMA, Yale, Stedelijk, V&A, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Cleveland Museum of Art, and Baltimore Museum of Art. Major awards include the ICP Infinity Award (2014) for Holy Bible, and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2013) for War Primer 2. Broomberg and Chanarin are the winners of the Arles Photo Text Award 2018 for their paper back edition of War Primer 2, published by MACK.
Links
Artists’ page: http://www.broombergchanarin.com
HERO Gallery: https://www.hero-gallery.com/artists/38-broomberg-%26-chanarin/overview/
Goodman Gallery: http://www.goodman-gallery.com/artists/1
Lisson Gallery: https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/broomberg-chanarin
