31/50 Broomberg & Chanarin

4 Aug-9 Aug 2015

Overview

Broomberg & Chanarin’s site-specific work for fig-2 interrogates the landscape that surrounds the ICA Studio, incorporating the Mall, Downing Street, Horse Guards Parade and Buckingham Palace; an area characterised by daily military parades and other displays of state power. Broomberg & Chanarin have invited a bouffon to respond to this highly militarised environment. The figure of the bouffon, originated in medieval times was used as a term to describe someone ostracised from society and relegated to the margins of the city – apart from one day of the year, when he or she was invited to the Royal Court with explicit permission to ridicule the authorities. For one week Broomberg & Chanarin will transform the fig-2 premises into a ‘green screen’ studio for the bouffon to inhabit. Her grotesque and vulgar presence suggests a counterpoint to the military codes of discipline and hierarchical order on display in the surrounding streets.