Adam Broomberg and Rafael Gonzalez
South Africa, Germany
Anchor in the Landscape
Anchor in the Landscape is a collection of 8×10″ black-and-white studies of olive trees growing in the Occupied Territories of Palestine, some of which are thousands of years old. This project considers the importance of the olive tree in Palestinian identity and its role as a marker in a changing, contested, and often destroyed landscape.
The olive tree is a totem 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 course of eighteen months, artists Adam Broomberg and Rafael Gonzalez photographed olive trees in the Occupied Territories of Palestine, many of which are thousands of years old. This work brings together their studied 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.
Adam Broomberg is an artist and educator based in Berlin. Rafael Gonzalez is a photographer based in Berlin. Their collaborative work has been exhibited at, amongst others, the 60th edition of La Biennale di Venezia, Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp, and is currently being exhibted at Villa Medici in Rome and Ibraaz in London.
Rafael Gonzalez (b. 1997 in Saint-Cloud, France) is a lens-based artist, photographer and educator living and working in Berlin.
His work has been exhibited at the 60th La Biennale di Venezia, the Villa Medici in Rome, Kunsthal Extra City Antwerp, ICD Brookfield Place Dubai, among other places. In 2024 he published his first monograph in collaboration with artist Adam Broomberg titled Anchor in the Landscape, published by MACK books. He teaches photography at the SRH Berlin University – School of Arts, Information and Media.
