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Extra, 2011

single-channel video installation and photographs

Extra consists of a single-channel video installation as well as a series of photographs created on the set of the soap opera, Generations. Broadcast on SABC 1 since 1994, Generations, South Africa’s most loved soap and the most watched television programme on the African continent, seeks to paint a picture of the country’s emerging black middle class against the backdrop of the media industry. Generations does not include any major white characters in its cast: because much of the script is delivered in Nguni languages, white South Africans – who at this historical juncture rarely speak indigenous African languages – simply don’t fit into this aspirational landscape.

The shoot for Extra took place over a two-week period. The cast of Generations was asked to ignore Breitz’s presence on the set to the greatest degree possible. Once each scene had been filmed for broadcast purposes, an extra take including the artist was captured. Breitz inserts herself into a number of actual scenes from the soap, sometimes subtly, sometimes awkwardly and absurdly, always without judgment or easy explanation. Here she resonates as a conspicuously white presence amongst an otherwise black cast. The resulting images are simultaneously thought provoking and uncomfortably amusing – implicitly raising questions about what it might mean to be white in the context of the new South Africa, without offering easy answers. In this respect, Extra returns to many of the questions implicit to the Ghost Series, this time to tentatively explore whiteness from a post-apartheid perspective.

Candice Breitz, Extra, 2011, Single-channel video installation in architectural environment, 4:3, color, sound, eng subtitles, 69:22 min, 5+2AP, installation view at ARCO Madrid, 2018
Candice Breitz, Extra, 2011, Single-channel video installation in architectural environment, 4:3, color, sound, eng subtitles, 69:22 min, 5+2AP, installation view at ARCO Madrid, 2018
Candice Breitz, Extra, 2011, Single-channel video installation in architectural environment, 4:3, color, sound, eng subtitles, 69:22 min, 5+2AP, installation view at ARCO Madrid, 2018

Single-channel video installation in architectural environment, 4:3, color, sound, eng subtitles, 69:22 min, 5+2AP

Candice Breitz, Extra #1, 2011, Chromogenic Print, 56 x 84 cm, 5+2AP
Candice Breitz, Extra #31, 2011, Chromogenic Print, 28 x 42 cm, 5+2AP
Candice Breitz, Extra #3, 2011, Chromogenic Print, 56 x 84 cm, 5+2AP
Candice Breitz, Extra #11, 2011, Chromogenic Print, 56 x 84 cm, 5+2AP
Candice Breitz, Extra #27, 2011, Chromogenic Print, 28 x 42 cm, 5+2AP
Candice Breitz, Extra #13, 2011, Chromogenic Print, 56 x 84 cm, 5+2AP
Candice Breitz, Extra #20, 2011, Chromogenic Print, 56 x 84 cm, 5+2AP
Candice Breitz, Extra #23, 2011, Chromogenic Print, 56 x 84 cm, 5+2AP

Chromogenic Prints, 56 x 84 cm / 28 x 42 cm, 5+2AP

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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