AWARD-WINNING Irish artist Richard Mosse’s exhibition Broken Spectre has opened to the public at Carlisle Memorial Church – an Irish premiere at the Belfast Photo Festival.
The launch of Broken Spectre marks the opening of the festival’s landmark tenth edition which is showcasing compelling visual art across Belfast throughout the month of June.
Seeking to overcome the challenge of representing climate change, Broken Spectre is Mosse’s most ambitious project to date. Taking the audience deep into the Brazilian Amazon, the immersive 74-minute audio-visual installation is presented within one of the Belfast’s most striking buildings with the support of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Belfast Buildings Trust. Admission to Broken Spectre is free of charge and accessible Tuesday to Friday, from 1pm to 7pm, until June 30.
Commenting on the exhibition, Richard said: “I hope Broken Spectre gives you a sense of your own role in what’s happening to the environment. I hope you go away from this film with a new understanding of your agency as a consumer, as a citizen, and as an individual in our wider society, because we often forget our power. I want you to go away feeling empowered.”
Belfast Photo Festival Director Michael Weir commented: “It is a real privilege to be able to host Richard Mosse in Belfast. This body of work covers urgent themes and it’s important to us as a festival that we provide a space to stimulate discussion around contemporary issues both in an exhibition and in a participatory panel event.”
Commenting on the festival’s tenth edition, he added: “This year’s festival offers a rich programme of world-class visual art presented free of charge right across Belfast. From the climate emergency to the rise of artificial intelligence, we hope the photographic lens will provide audiences with a new and unique perspective of the world around us.”
This year’s edition of Belfast Photo Festival explores the theme of Divergence and aims to delve deep into how contemporary photographers are interpreting the climate emergency, rapid digitalisation and the ethical questions surrounding artificial intelligence.
Featured exhibitions also include SMILE AI by Dutch artist Matthias Oostrik, which is presented in Riddel’s Warehouse. This dystopian art installation actively immerses the audience in a future where reality is refracted through the lens of AI’s statistical interpretations.
Exhibited on the lawn at Belfast City Hall is Our Streets are full of White Bears by Barbara Caillot and Aleksandra Karkowska. These photos showcase the artists’ fascinating project of the legendary White Bear of Zakopane, exploring how thousands of pictures of civilians with white bears have become a symbol of Polish popular culture, and both an antidote and provocation during uncertain times over the past 100 years.
For details of the full festival programme visit belfastphotofestival.com.
