Richard Mosse: The Enclave

Overview

Since 1998, 5.4 million people have been killed as a result of warfare in the Congo. This astounding statistic is generally overlooked by the rest of the world. But Irish artist Richard Mosse and his collaborators have captured this forgotten humanitarian disaster in a way that is impossible to ignore. The Enclave is a six-screen video installation, now showing at COFA Galleries, and was a definite highlight of last year's Venice Biennale, winning critical acclaim and gracing numerous lists of festival favourites.

By using the last remaining stocks of a type of infrared film designed to detect camouflage, Mosse is able to transform the lush greenery of the Congo's jungles into a vivid, bubblegum pink. The capturing of this infrared light, invisible to the human eye, is akin to the notion of an invisible war — a raging conflict that is no longer of interest to the Western media. In this way, Mosse aims to disrupt viewer complacency and push the parameters of war photography.

On this note, partial credit is due to the patient and piercing cinematography by Trevor Tweeten. The slow and steady roaming of the camera absorbs every detail, whilst the grainy texture of the film creates a painterly quality. The wide-angle landscapes are particularly arresting, depicting rivers and waterfalls framed by lurid pinks and foggy lilacs.

These fleeting moments carry a serenity and beauty that is quickly deflated by the reappearance of weapons, slums, and lifeless bodies. Adding to the immersive experience of the work is the haunting and visceral soundscape by composer, Ben Frost. In moments of utter darkness, you are aurally bombarded with explosions and gunshots as if standing in the thick of a conflict zone.

Mosse and his collaborators spent two years infiltrating and earning the trust of rebel groups in the Eastern Congo. After displaying an initial hesitancy to being filmed, the soldiers assume postures of macho militancy. Amid shocking pink surroundings, this is highly bizarre, and the artificial coloration of the infrared transforms their earnest performances into absurdity.

The aestheticisation of menace and brutality is disturbing to say the least. The imposition of beauty on something that shouldn't be beautiful is at the core of this work. In arousing an ethical dilemma in the viewer, Mosse is challenging the detached way in which we consume and catalogue images.

Although it may seem like a bad acid trip, when stripped of its psychedelic hues, The Enclave is a scrupulous documentation of the vicious realities suffered by countless people in the Congo. Mosse went to painstaking lengths to get his hands on the antiquated infrared film, and the results speak for themselves. In addition to revealing the cancerous cycle of wars in this region, the seductive aesthetic of the work is guilt-inducing, generating a throbbing sense of urgency and discomfort.