Artists Adam Broomberg and Rafael Gonzalez present "Anchor in the Landscape," a powerful photographic series featuring century-old olive trees from occupied Palestinian territories. The exhibition at Villa Medici in Rome displays these striking black and white silver prints in a modest 20x25cm format, creating an ensemble of images with profound symbolic intensity.
The series documents olive trees, some thousands of years old, that serve as both historical and political witnesses to Palestinian life. For Palestinians, the olive tree represents far more than agricultural heritage – it stands as a central symbol of identity, continuity, and resistance. More than 100,000 Palestinian families still depend on olive cultivation today, with these trees shaping the rhythm of seasons, defining the landscape, and supporting the entire rural economy.
Since 1967, approximately 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted or burned by Israeli authorities and settlers, an act many Palestinians view as an attempt at both cultural and material erasure. Against this backdrop, Broomberg and Gonzalez embarked on an 18-month journey throughout the occupied territories, approaching their subject through the lens of visual memory rather than photojournalism.
Each photograph appears suspended in time, distanced from the immediate political turmoil of the region. Rather than documenting olive trees as subjects for reporting, the artists observe them as characters – each trunk, scar, and knot in the wood tells a story of endurance. The chosen format reinforces this contemplative approach, demanding patience and rigor from both creators and viewers.
The images command attention through their silence. No human silhouettes, figures, borders, or soldiers appear in the frames, yet everything speaks of presence and absence. In this landscape marked by occupation and destruction, the trees become fixed points – anchors of continuity amid constant change. Broomberg and Gonzalez treat them as natural monuments, standing despite everything, rooted in disputed land.
The black and white treatment accentuates the timeless dimension of the subject, transforming these olive trees into genuine botanical archives. This project represents the meeting of two generations and two distinct artistic sensibilities. Adam Broomberg, born in Johannesburg in 1970, is an artist, activist, and educator known as half of the Broomberg & Chanarin duo, whose work questions images of power and war.
Broomberg, winner of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2013) and the ICP Infinity Award (2014), continues his strong commitment through the NGO Artists & Allies x Hebron, which defends freedom of expression in Palestinian territories. Alongside him, Rafael Gonzalez, born in Saint-Cloud in 1997, is a young Franco-Spanish photographer trained in Berlin, London, and New York, marking his first major project with this collaboration.
Gonzalez's more intimate perspective articulates with Broomberg's approach in a sensitive treatment of the landscape. Together, they offer a poetic yet lucid reading of the territory – a collective portrait through these trees, a way of evoking Palestine without ever showing it directly. These photographed olive trees, simultaneously wounded and standing, remind viewers that landscape can serve as a form of memory.
The landscape preserves, in its lines and scars, the memory of human gestures, losses, and rebirths. By capturing them on film, Broomberg and Gonzalez create a visual manifesto where photography becomes witness, and the olive tree becomes a universal symbol of perseverance. The exhibition runs at Villa Medici in Rome through January 19, 2026, accompanied by the publication of "Anchor in the Landscape" by Mack Books, created for the 60th Venice Biennale.
