Martin Bogren — Tractor boys

Commanderie Saint-Jean
2, place Galignani, 91 100, Corbeil-Essonnes (FRANCE)
From March 21 to May 21, 2017

For his series Tractor Boys, Martin Bogren followed young teenagers in the remote Skane region of Sweden. These boys have a habit of gathering in vast stretches of desert, some of them with their girlfriends, to drive old, beat-up cars at top speed. Their frantic racing, kicking up dust and snow with the smell of burnt rubber and diesel, in many ways expresses the fury of a James Dean in Nicholas Ray’s film of the same name.
“The whole thing has the air of a show staged by the actors themselves. What is important, and what makes this work so compelling, is the way it is seen. Martin Bogren, who has succeeded in gaining acceptance in a world that is obviously forbidden to adults, does not allow himself to be exuberant about what he sees, nor does he indulge in any kind of complacency. (…) ” Christian Caujolle