as pdf - Candice Breitz

LEGEND
A new work by
ANDICE
CA
NDICE
REITZ
BR
EITZ
LEGEND
commisioned by
THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA
ART CONTEMPORARY
VIENNA
ONE LOVE, MANY FACES
Francesca von Habsburg
Chairman of Thyssen-Bornemisza
Art Contemporary, Vienna
LEGEND is one of the first art commissions to be generated by T-B A21 within the context of the foundation’s
emphasis on collecting unique works of art. These
projects are generated in close collaboration with the
artists that the Foundation supports, and are born out
of a personal commitment to fostering courageous and
bold projects which empower audiences with a living
experience of contemporary artistic expression. In this
particular instance, the project was born in Nobu in
Miami, where Candice Breitz and I were having dinner together nearly three years ago. We got into a huge
discussion about who the ultimate ‘pop legend’ was.
After much sake, we settled on Bob Marley, whom we
both agreed had reached a universal audience with
music that was nevertheless remarkably specific to
Jamaica. What we could not agree upon at all, no matter how much sake we drank, was how he had become
such a phenomenon, and what the message is that he
continues to convey through his music, music which
has captured the hearts of young and old.... What was
so communicable about his lyrics? Was it his freedom
fighting... his songs about love? What made him
such an icon? His steaming presence, his aloofness,
or his religious beliefs? Was it his open drug use or
his peaceful resistance to the political oppression in
Jamaica at the time? His reverence for Haile Selassie, a lost exotic god king from the recent past, or his
own star qualities? What was it that he had in common
with millions of people from all five continents? How
do people remember Bob Marley now? Does the new
generation of kids born after his death even know who
he was, or what he looked like? What does he mean to
us nowadays? More than enough questions remained
to be answered, to justify a special commission!
I later invited Candice to Jamaica to do some research,
resulting in findings that were as diverse as the questions asked, but there was one essential answer: Marley was the absolute right choice for this project. So
Candice got started on her TB A-21 commission and
created a wonderful new work called.... LEGEND.
LEGEND
A Thirty-Channel Video Installation by Candice Breitz
emblematic amongst Jamaicans for having managed to transcend the violence and
poverty of ghetto life through his music. To the many latent Marleys inhabiting the
Trenchtowns of Jamaica, he is an inspiration and an example. In Jamaica, Marley is
Candice Breitz’s thirty-channel video installation LEGEND explores the contrasts
much more than a posterboy for marijuana-enhanced island life: for as he created an
between the Bob Marley who has become a brand name outside of Jamaica, and the
image of himself, he also created a radical new image of themselves for his Jamaican
Bob Marley who was reverently described to her by Jamaicans on her first visit to the
supporters.
island in January 2004. LEGEND was commissioned by the Thyssen-Bornemisza
Contemporary Art Foundation and shot during a residency in Port Antonio, Jamaica,
Having heard countless Jamaicans evoke the way in which Marley has
in early 2005.
affected their lives, Breitz decided that it was time, twenty years after Legend was
released, to ‘return the album to Jamaica, in the same spirit that the Elgin marbles
It was not until three years after Bob Marley’s premature death, with the release of
might one day be returned to Greece.’ Central to the reggae aesthetic, is the under-
the definitive compilation album Legend in 1984, that his music first received the
standing that one original song, rhythm or melody, can give rise to any number of
overwhelming international support that it enjoys today. The posthumous collection
equally innovative versions, covers or remixes. Breitz invited thirty Jamaicans from
of greatest hits quickly became the best-selling reggae album of all time, predict-
all walks of life to sing their versions of Legend in a professional recording studio
ing in its title and confirming in its phenomenal sales, that Marley himself was on
in Port Antonio, Jamaica. Each participant was invited to individually re-perform the
his way to becoming a legend. The commercial interests of Island Records played a
entire Legend album from beginning to end. The resulting thirty performances are
significant role in the selection of songs for Legend. The militant aspects of Marley’s
screened simultaneously on a wall of thirty monitors. Stubbornly insisting on the
music were tempered by the presence of a generous range of memorable hooks and
exact format of the original fourteen-track album, as if to acknowledge the undeni-
catchy melodies. Around the world, the dreadlocked image of Bob Marley has since
able role that marketing has played in the packaging of the Marley myth, Breitz’s
become synonymous with reggae music and the island of Jamaica. Time magazine
LEGEND strips away the voice of Marley and the familiar musical arrangements, so
named Marley’s album Exodus ‘The Album of the Twentieth Century’ and the BBC
that ultimately Marley remains present in the work only through the voices of his
has called his pacifist anthem One Love ‘The Song of the Twentieth Century.’ But
fans. The work thus invites us to imagine a charismatic cultural icon not as a mono-
in his homeland, Marley has come to signify much more than Top Ten success. His
lithic and isolated figure, but rather as a complex composite of those whose stories
rags-to-riches story, political conviction and Rastafarian belief have elevated him
he has told and those whose lives continue to be inflected through his music. In the
to the status of revolutionary prophet in Jamaica, where his music is thought of less
year that Bob Marley would have been sixty, LEGEND recognizes his continuing im-
as dance music with a political subtext, than as political music that is worth danc-
pact on Jamaican culture, but also considers the complex and delicate machinery of
ing to. In his music and in his life, Marley decried political injustice and fought for
fan worship that generates every legend. The resulting installation is an a cappella
social equality. This legacy secures his continued popularity in Jamaica. He remains
portrait of the man who remains remarkable for having become the first third world
superstar.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Is This Love
No Woman No Cry
Could You Be Loved
Three Little Birds
Buffalo Soldier
Get Up Stand Up
Stir It Up
One Love
I Shot The Sheriff
Waiting in Vain
Redemption Song
Satisfy My Soul
Exodus
Jamming
LEGEND CAST
Carol Alexander AKA Bibsy
Javaughn Bond
Harley Brown AKA Cricket
H. Monty Bryant
Somi Chen
Charles Cousins AKA Papa Woody
Francine Cousins
Patrick Davis
Ronnesha Davis
Deron Frankly AKA Vocal
Rohan Graham AKA Daweh Congo
Ruddy Isaacs
Oneil Lawrence AKA Shynz
Adoneiké Lewis AKA Jerine
Anthony George Lewis AKA Shandy
Nadine Ming AKA Nadine Queen
Joseph Morgan
Bernice Oswald AKA Queen Sheba
Leon Porter AKA Jay
Venessa Raymond AKA Vonnie
Sharon Reece AKA Shar
Diana Rutherford
Dr. Mary Sloper
Marjean Smith
Allan Swymmer
Kadeen Whyte AKA Susan
Pearline Wolfe AKA Sister Fire
Zebulun
Warm gratitude also to Antoinette Barnaby, Fabrice
Cousins, Tracey Downer, Winston Lewis AKA Cávan,
Ricardo Morgan and George Thaxter AKA Kwami I,
all of whom sang for LEGEND.
PRODUCTION
LEGEND was commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
and shot at Gee Jam Studios in Jamaica during March 2005.
PRODUCER
DIRECTOR
COORDINATION
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
Candice Breitz
Colin Smikle + Alexander Fahl
CASTING
Colin Smikle
CAMERA
Yoliswa Gärtig
SOUND
Max Schneider
EDITOR
Alexander Fahl
EDITING ASSISTANTS
GRAPHIC DESIGN
CATERING
Janne Schäfer + Julia Pfeiffer
Alexander Fahl
Alligator Head
ARTIST’S CREDITS
LEGEND would not have been possible without the energy and generosity of Francesca von Habsburg.
Major thanks to everybody who sang for LEGEND, and to the crew who made LEGEND happen. Big up
to Daniela Zyman, Eva Ebersberger, Barbara Horvath and Karin Frei (Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary), Sam Keller and Alexandra Nikitin (Art Basel), Patricia Francis and Del Crooks (JAMPRO), Jon
Baker, Rosemarie Barrant and Rick Elgood (Gee Jam Studios), the Marley family for their warm support,
Francesca Kaufmann and Alessio delli Castelli (galleria francesca kaufmann, Milan), Cécile Grieder
and Andreas Künzi (Das Schiff, Basel), Ralph Niebuhr (Neue Medien Pro, Berlin), Nancy Jeffries and
Doreen Cuerjias (Bob Marley Music, New York), Louise Hammar (Blue Mountain Music, London) and
Francesca Trainini (Fairwood Music International). The LEGEND shoot benefited from the support of
Yvonne Blakey, Yvonne Blake and the fabulous team at Alligator Head (Zedekiah Bignall, Valerie Morgan, Alma Gayle, Damion ‘Zekes’ Morris, Hermin Beckford, Carl Gordon, Ian ‘Lion’ Parkinson and David
‘Fire’ Parkinson). For their invaluable advice along the way, huge thanks to Adrian Boot, Ziggi GoldingBaker and Sistah P.
Candice Breitz
Born in Johannesburg in 1972, Candice Breitz lives and works in Berlin. During 2005, her
work has been shown at the Castello di Rivoli (Turin), the Palais de Tokyo (Paris) and on the
51st Venice Biennale. In recent years, she has exhibited at Modern Art Oxford, the O.K Center
for Contemporary Art Upper Austria (Linz), Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York), Tate Liverpool, De Appel Foundation (Amsterdam),
Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), ZKM (Karlsruhe), FACT (Liverpool)
and the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen. Her work has been included on Biennales in Johannesburg,
Taipei, Kwangju, Venice, Istanbul and São Paulo.
About T-B A21
A new foundation for contemporary art, T-B A21 was founded by Francesca von Habsburg
in Vienna, Austria. Its mission is to support through co-productions and unique commissions
the creation of new works from artists that contribute important positions to contemporary art
practice. T-B A21 seeks to achieve this through multi-disciplinary projects that break down
the traditional boundaries that define and categorize artistic expression in its different forms,
whilst at the same time empowering audiences with a living experience of contemporary
artistic expression. The work of the foundation brings innovation to the core of the ThyssenBornemisza fourth generation’s approach to collecting and patronizing the arts.
Über T-B A21
Im Jahr 2002 wurde Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary unter dem Vorsitz von Francesca
von Habsburg gegründet. Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary – kurz T-B A21 – hat zum
Ziel, neuartige Koproduktionen und Auftragsarbeiten mit bedeutenden zeitgenössischen
Künstlern zu initiieren. Richtungsweisende Positionen des zeitgenössischen Kunstschaffens
zu etablieren und multi-disziplinäre Projekte, welche die traditionellen kategorischen Grenzen transzendieren, bilden dabei zentrale methodische Vorgaben sowie die aktive Einbindung des Betrachters in einen lebendigen Dialog mit zeitgenössischen Kunstformen. Die
Arbeit der Stiftung stellt Innovation ins Zentrum der Sammlungstradition und des Mäzenatentums der Familie Thyssen-Bornemisza – ein Engagement, das Francesca von Habsburg in der
vierten Generation fortführt.
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
Himmelpfortgasse 13, A-1010 Vienna
[email protected], www.TBA21.org
Phone +43 1 513 98 56, Fax +43 1 513 98 56 22