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Yours, KOW

Dear Esther, 2025

Video

Each of the short films that constitute Dear Esther, takes the form of a letter addressed to the late musician and antifascist activist Esther Bejarano (1924–2021), who survived Auschwitz as an accordionist in the extermination camp’s Mädchenorchester, only to face accusations of antisemitism in her later life on the basis of her outspoken criticism of Israel’s human rights violations. Breitz weaves exacting analysis of the political and cultural landscape of contemporary Germany with fever-dream imagery and anecdotal research, drawing an arc between fascisms of the past and fascization in the present.

The second Dear Esther film culminates in an act of appropriative homage – we witness Breitz awkwardly attempting to learn ‘Bel Ami,’ the song that played a major role in Bejarano’s survival of the Holocaust. Bejarano returned to performing ‘Bel Ami’ frequently towards the end of her life, describing her embrace of the song as “a gesture of revenge.”

Candice Breitz, Dear Esther (15 May 2020), 2025, single-channel video, colour, loop, 35 minutes, videostill, commissioned by steirischer herbst 2025, with the support of Sabine Brunckhorst
Candice Breitz, Dear Esther (15 May 2020), 2025, single-channel video, colour, loop, 35 minutes, videostill, commissioned by steirischer herbst 2025, with the support of Sabine Brunckhorst

Single-channel video, colour, loop
35 minutes

Candice Breitz, DDear Esther (May 1943), 2025, 2025, single-channel video, colour, loop, 10 minutes, videostill, commissioned by steirischer herbst 2025, with the support of Sabine Brunckhorst

Single-channel video, colour, loop
10 minutes

Commissioned by steirischer herbst 2025, with the support of Sabine Brunckhorst

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Candice Breitz

Candice Breitz, born in 1972 in Johannesburg, is best known for her moving image installations. Throughout her career, she has explored the dynamics by means of which an individual becomes him or herself in relation to a larger community, be that community the immediate community that one encounters in family, or the real and imagined communities that are shaped not only by questions of national belonging, race, gender and religion, but also by the increasingly undeniable influence of mainstream media such as television, cinema and popular culture. Most recently, Breitz’s work has focused on the conditions under which empathy is produced, reflecting on a media-saturated global culture in which strong identification with fictional characters and celebrity figures runs parallel to widespread indifference to the plight of those facing real world adversities. Candice Breitz is based in Berlin and, since 2007, holds a professorship for fine arts at the Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) and in the same year was awarded with the Prix International d´Art Contemporain I Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco. Her work has been featured in international group shows in institutions such as Haus der Kunst, München (2023), Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2022), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2021), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2021), the Jewish Museum, New York City (2020), the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2016), De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam (2001). Solo exhibitions of Breitz’s work have been shown at Fotografiska, Berlin (2023), Tate Liverpool (2022), Museum Folkwang, Essen (2022), Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2016), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2010), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2009) , Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2005) among others. Next to various group exhibitions Breitz has participated in biennales in Johannesburg (1997), São Paulo (1998), Istanbul (1999), Taipei (2000), Kwangju (2000), Tirana (2001), Venice (2005), New Orleans (2008), Göteborg (2003 + 2009), Singapore (2011) and Dakar (2014). She was invited to the South African Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017).



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