LEGEND (A Portrait of Bob Marley)
Candice Breitz
Candice BreitzLEGEND (A Portrait of Bob Marley), 200530-channel video installation on monitors (color, sound), wooden TV-rack62 min 40 sec (videos)318 x 485 x 58 cm (rack)Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art ContemporaryThyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
Installation view: Das Schiff, Basel, Switzerland, 2005
Photo: Basile Bornard | TBA21
- Date
- 2005
- Medium
- 30-channel video installation on monitors (color, sound), wooden TV-rack
- Dimension
- 62 min 40 sec (videos) 318 x 485 x 58 cm (rack)
- Credit
Commissioned by TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection- This artwork is part of the donation and long-term loan from TBA21 to the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Details
Candice Breitz’s thirty-channel video installation LEGEND (A Portrait of Bob Marley) —one of TBA21’s earliest commissions—pays homage to Jamaican reggae and its legendary figure, Bob Marley. Released in 1984 as a Marley greatest-hits package, Legend is the best-selling reggae album of all time. In keeping with reggae’s ethos that one original song can give rise to any number of equally innovative versions, covers, or remixes, Breitz invited thirty Jamaicans from all walks of life to record their versions of Legend in a professional studio in Port Antonio, Jamaica. Each participant reperformed the entire album from beginning to end, resulting in thirty simultaneous interpretations screened on a wall of thirty monitors. Breitz’s installation intentionally strips away Marley’s voice and the familiar musical arrangements so that the musician remains present in the work only through his lyrics and the voices of his fans. This approach sparks dialogue around questions of representation, particularly concerning the racialized politics of the arts and entertainment industries. In predominantly white exhibition spaces where the installation is often showcased, LEGEND (A Portrait of Bob Marley) emphasizes the significance of the presence of the individual Black body.
LEGEND (A Portrait of Bob Marley) is also the first in a series of “portraits” of iconic musicians, such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, and Leonard Cohen that Breitz subsequently realized. For the curator Okwui Enwezor, these portraits embody a convergence of archival and memorial impulses, prioritizing the idea of death and mourning over edifying spectacle, celebration, and immortalization. Breitz eschews portraying the pop stars as individuals, opting instead for a reflexive approach that transforms spectatorship and memory into a collective act. By blurring the boundaries between eulogy and elegy, Breitz’s portrait of Marley serve as expressions of both commemoration and remembrance, weaving together elements of celebration and lament.
(Text written by TBA21 and used as wall label in the exhibition "The Ecologies of Peace", C3A, Córdoba, 2024)
