Candice Breitz
30 Oct - 28 Dec 2008
Candice Breitz
Inner + Outer Space
Part I: 30 October - 27 November 2008
Part II: 28 November - 28 December 2008
In her elaborate video installations, Candice Breitz (*1972, Johannesburg) refers to strategies in Pop Art and undertakes a media-critical debate with the role of the audience and the transformation of popular culture in everyday life.
Breitz's solo exhibition will take place in two distinct parts. In the first part, three existing works that were produced from Breitz's Berlin studio will be shown in Berlin for the first time. The video installations Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon), King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson) and Queen (A Portrait of Madonna) were shot in 2005 and 2006. In making these works, the artist invited a series of fans of the respective icons to each re-perform an entire album by Madonna, Michael Jackson or John Lennon. In each of the final installations, the filmed performers re-sing the relevant album in synchronization with each other, their performances merging into a kaleidoscope of voices, facial expressions and body language, to constitute a diverse collective interaction with a pop icon. In their staging of the transformative processes of global popular culture as these impact on everyday life, the fans create a jigsaw image of collective identification, prompting questions around the construction of celebrity aura, projection and consumption. Breitz reflects on the cult of celebrity from the perspective of the pop consumer, zooming in on the fan as s/he identifies with and internalizes the star. The performers range from fans who heavily mimic the facial expressions and bodily presence of the star, to those who go to great lengths to find an idiosyncratic interpretation of the existing album. Engaging a diverse range of responses to popular music, these installations probe the extent to which individual creativity might be possible within the structures of the mass media, leaving the viewer to draw her own conclusions.
Candice Breitz presents another aspect of her examination of celebrity cult in the second part of the show, among others, with her most recent work Him (1968-2008). This work, showing the actor Jack Nicholson in 23 selected roles from his 40-year film career, will be presented as a world première at the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin. Arranged in seven monitors, the artist has the actor perform in various roles simultaneously and come into multi-faceted encounters and conflicts with himself. In this manner, she also demonstrates the psychological and technical potentials of the pictorial genre of portrayal.
Candice Breitz (*1972 in Johannesburg, South Africa) lives and works in Berlin. Her work has been shown in international museums and galleries of world renown. In recent years, she has had solo exhibitions at, among other venues, the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Modern Art Oxford, and the Bawag Foundation, Vienna. Breitz's works are included in public and private collections such as the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Le Fonds national d'art contemporain (Fnac), the Sammlung Goetz, and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Since 2007 she has been a professor of fine art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig.
Gerald Matt is the curator of the exhibition. Since 1996, he has been the director of the Kunsthalle Vienna and, since November 2007, a member of the Artistic Advisory Board of the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin. Matt has been a visiting professor at the Universität für Angewandte Kunst Vienna since 2007 and has curated numerous exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Vienna (e.g., Superstars, Hl. Sebastian, Raymond Pettibon, Mathew Barney, Chen Zhen, Traum&Trauma).
Inner + Outer Space
Part I: 30 October - 27 November 2008
Part II: 28 November - 28 December 2008
In her elaborate video installations, Candice Breitz (*1972, Johannesburg) refers to strategies in Pop Art and undertakes a media-critical debate with the role of the audience and the transformation of popular culture in everyday life.
Breitz's solo exhibition will take place in two distinct parts. In the first part, three existing works that were produced from Breitz's Berlin studio will be shown in Berlin for the first time. The video installations Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon), King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson) and Queen (A Portrait of Madonna) were shot in 2005 and 2006. In making these works, the artist invited a series of fans of the respective icons to each re-perform an entire album by Madonna, Michael Jackson or John Lennon. In each of the final installations, the filmed performers re-sing the relevant album in synchronization with each other, their performances merging into a kaleidoscope of voices, facial expressions and body language, to constitute a diverse collective interaction with a pop icon. In their staging of the transformative processes of global popular culture as these impact on everyday life, the fans create a jigsaw image of collective identification, prompting questions around the construction of celebrity aura, projection and consumption. Breitz reflects on the cult of celebrity from the perspective of the pop consumer, zooming in on the fan as s/he identifies with and internalizes the star. The performers range from fans who heavily mimic the facial expressions and bodily presence of the star, to those who go to great lengths to find an idiosyncratic interpretation of the existing album. Engaging a diverse range of responses to popular music, these installations probe the extent to which individual creativity might be possible within the structures of the mass media, leaving the viewer to draw her own conclusions.
Candice Breitz presents another aspect of her examination of celebrity cult in the second part of the show, among others, with her most recent work Him (1968-2008). This work, showing the actor Jack Nicholson in 23 selected roles from his 40-year film career, will be presented as a world première at the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin. Arranged in seven monitors, the artist has the actor perform in various roles simultaneously and come into multi-faceted encounters and conflicts with himself. In this manner, she also demonstrates the psychological and technical potentials of the pictorial genre of portrayal.
Candice Breitz (*1972 in Johannesburg, South Africa) lives and works in Berlin. Her work has been shown in international museums and galleries of world renown. In recent years, she has had solo exhibitions at, among other venues, the Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Modern Art Oxford, and the Bawag Foundation, Vienna. Breitz's works are included in public and private collections such as the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Le Fonds national d'art contemporain (Fnac), the Sammlung Goetz, and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Since 2007 she has been a professor of fine art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig.
Gerald Matt is the curator of the exhibition. Since 1996, he has been the director of the Kunsthalle Vienna and, since November 2007, a member of the Artistic Advisory Board of the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin. Matt has been a visiting professor at the Universität für Angewandte Kunst Vienna since 2007 and has curated numerous exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Vienna (e.g., Superstars, Hl. Sebastian, Raymond Pettibon, Mathew Barney, Chen Zhen, Traum&Trauma).