Bioart + Design Africa
VIAD
Imminent and Eminent Ecologies
Adam Broomberg
Adam Broomberg (b. 1970, Johannesburg) is an artist, activist and educator. He currently lives and works in Berlin.
Broomberg is currently Practice supervisor on the MA in Photography & Society at The Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague. He was recently a visiting professor in the Media Arts Department of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) and between 2016 and 2022 was professor of Photography at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfBK) in Hamburg.
His most recent work Anchor in the Landscape – a photographic survey of olive trees in Occupied Palestine has just been published by MACK books and will be exhibited at the 60th edition of La Biennale di Venezia.
His activist work currently includes having founded Artists + Allies x Hebron (AHH), an NGO which he co-directs alongside the celebrated Palestinian human rights defender Issa Amro. Their recent project, Counter Surveillance entailed installing surveillance cameras in olive groves in Hebron, Palestine and broadcasting the livestream to numerous international institutions in an attempt to enlist the public to protect the ancient trees from destruction by illegal settlers and Israeli authorities
For two decades, he was one half of the critically acclaimed artist duo Broomberg & Chanarin. Together they had numerous solo exhibitions, most recently at Fabra i Coats Centre D’Art Contemporani Barcelona (2021), The Centre Georges Pompidou (2018) and the Hasselblad Center (2017), amongst others. His participation in international group shows include; 8th Triennial of Photography – Currency, Hamburger Kunsthalle (2022); 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 Gwangju Biennale (2012). His work is held in major public and private collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Baltimore Museum of Art, Centres Pompidou, Cleveland Museum of Art, MoMA, Stedelijk Museum, the Tate gallery, Yale University Art Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum. Major awards include the Arles Photo Text Award (2018), ICP Infinity Award (2014) for the work Holy Bible (2013) and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2013) for War Primer 2 (2011).
Specific Artist Statement on Anchor in the Landscape (Collaboration with Rafael Gonzalez)
The olive tree is an emblem of Palestinian identity, culture, and resistance. It supports the livelihoods of more than 100,000 Palestinian families, is a centre of traditions and identities, and has long been a target of destruction and theft. Since 1967, 800,000 Palestinian olive trees have been destroyed by Israeli authorities and settlers. Over the past 18 months, photographers Adam Broomberg and Rafael Gonzalez have been photographing olive trees in the Occupied Territories of Palestine, many of which are thousands of years old. This book brings together their studied, absorbing portraits of these trees, which act as fixed points in a historic and transforming landscape that is constantly disputed, altered, and increasingly destroyed. Each portrait bears witness to the presence and resilience of the Palestinian people and their relationship with the land.
The project is published by Mack Books with a text by Dr Irus Braveman. It will also be exhibited at the 60th edition of La Biennale di Venezia.
An Artists + Allies x Hebron project with Issa Amro.