A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria has put the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo in disturbing new light.
The Enclave, a video installation from Irish artist and documentary filmmaker Richard Mosse, portrays the struggles of a displaced population and political and violent upheaval.
“I was very interested in the fact that the sort of difficulties that this enormous humanitarian disaster has had in being communicated”, Mr Mosse said.
“Really, what I was drawn to, was this one statistic, the IRC (International Rescue Committee) did some research and they came up with the statistic that since 1998, 5.4 million people have died or have been killed of war-related causes.”
A still from Richard Mosse's video installation 'The Enclave'. Source: SBS News
Mr Mosse spent five years living in the Democratic Republic of Congo to familiarise himself with the people, the land and the factions.
His time in the country instilled with a desire to tell the complicated story of the people he met, in an unconventional way, using 16mm infra-red film to shoot the video.
A still from Richard Mosse's video installation 'The Enclave'. Source: SBS News
“This was invented in World War Two, this particular type of film, by Kodak in collaboration with the U.S military, and what they were trying to do, the primary purpose of the film, at that stage, was to detect and reveal camouflaged enemy installations,” he said.
As a result the landscape is awash in bright shades of pink, but Mr Mosse’s film never shies away from the reality of war.
National Gallery of Victoria curator Max Delany said the visceral nature of the work made it confronting but strangely mesmerising, to audiences.
A still from Richard Mosse's video installation 'The Enclave'. Source: SBS News
“It’s both very profound from a documentary perspective, but also other worldly,” Mr Delany said.
“In fact it brings to light the conditions of war in their full horror, but also the dignity of the individuals who are engaged in that context, and the trauma.”
By presenting the 40 minute film on 6 separate screens, each portraying different scenes often played at once, Mr Mosse said he wanted the viewer to feel immersed in the chaotic environment surrounding them.
A still from Richard Mosse's video installation 'The Enclave'. Source: SBS News
“It's quite an eccentric way of representing the world, and people are held in the space sometimes, so people have a reaction to it and that's totally valid,” he said.
The public can work its way through his visual maze from Saturday.
A still from Richard Mosse's video installation 'The Enclave'. Source: SBS News
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