Candice Breitz

Candice Breitz is a South African artist, born in Johannesburg in 1972, who lives and works in Berlin. She has gained international recognition for her provocative moving-image installations and photographic works, which examine how identity, empathy, and community are shaped by mass media and popular culture. Breitz studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University in New York. In 1997, she participated in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Studio Program. She later led Le Pavillon, the Palais de Tokyo’s artist residency program, as a visiting artist in 2005–2006, before becoming a tenured professor at the Braunschweig University of Art in 2007. Breitz’s practice is characterized by multichannel video installations that combine found footage, imagery drawn from popular culture, and personal testimony. Her work explores how individuals relate to broader communities and cultural narratives, particularly through media-driven identification with fictional characters and celebrities. It frequently contrasts this emotional investment with public indifference toward urgent social and political realities. Installations such as Love Story, TLDR, and Whiteface foreground questions of empathy, media saturation, privilege, and the politics of representation, prompting viewers to reconsider the emotional and psychological effects of mass-mediated imagery. Breitz has exhibited extensively at major museums and biennials around the world. Her solo exhibitions include presentations at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Kunsthaus Bregenz, and Tate Liverpool. In 2017, she co-represented South Africa with Mohau Modisakeng at the 57th Venice Biennale. Her works are held in prominent public collections, and her practice continues to challenge assumptions about media, identity, empathy, and community in contemporary society.