Adam Broomberg

Projects

Paura

Adam Broomberg was one of the first generation of residents at Fabrica, a research centre dedicated to art and design sponsored by Luciano Benetton.  The space was designed by Tadao Ando, and was originally led by Godfrey Reggio.  During his residency at Fabrica the creative directorship passed to Oliviero Toscani. A project called Paura (Italian for “Fear”) was conceived by Adam Broomberg in collaboration with Fabrizio Andreella and Carlo Spoldi in 1994 and continued until 1996. An advert was placed in magazines, newspapers, radio and TV channels worldwide asking people to send in their fear. Some of the 5,000 replies included a blood sample from an HIV-infected Italian teenager, a piece of BSE-infected meat from the UK, and a recording of original music from an African psychiatric ward patient. The project resulted in a world collection of people’s fears, some of which were selected, mounted and displayed at the First Florence Biennale in Prato, at the Luigi Pecci Museum of Contemporary Art in the autumn of 1996 and appeared as 3×2 meter billboards on every vaporetto station along the Canal Grande in Venice Canal (The work was censored and removed after a few days).

 

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