Richard Mosse: Broken Spectre
Exhibition
Broken Spectre is an immersive 74-minute film that documents the immense destruction of the Amazon Rainforest between 2018 and 2022. Richard Mosse’s multi-layered approach reveals the all-encompassing nature of this devastation. With a haunting soundtrack by Ben Frost, the film alternates between close-ups of the forest and satellite images that reveal the alarming scale of the deforestation.
Mosse, who worked for many years as a war journalist, recorded the footage for this impressive masterpiece between 2018 and 2022. The title Broken Spectre is a word play on the so-called ‘Brocken spectre’, an optical illusion in which mountaineers see their massively magnified shadow projected onto mist or clouds, often surrounded by a halo. The title suggests our inability to grasp mankind’s impact on the natural world. Through a visually overwhelming narrative, the film reveals the true scale of this ecological and moral disaster.
A fifth of the rainforest has been destroyed in the past fifty years. Mosse draws out our intense empathy with the plants, animals and Indigenous communities trying to survive amid the advancing destruction, driven by the economic interests of the meat and gold industries. Broken Spectre is this internationally acclaimed artist’s most ambitious work to date. His multi-channel video installation The Enclave (2013), shown at Centraal Museum in 2021 as part of Double Act – Masterpieces in Paint and Video, made a deep impression on the public.
This is the first time that the work has been shown in the Netherlands.
From 6-9 November, you'll receive free entrance at Centraal Museum on presentation of your festival wristband (Day Passes & 4-Day Passes).
News
Centraal Museum presents Wael Shawky and Richard Mosse at LGW25
