Candice Breitz's largest Italian survey opens at FMAV Modena

FMAV – Fondazione Modena Arti Visivi hosts 'Candice Breitz: Never Ending Stories' from June 8 to September 18, 2022, the most extensive exhibition of the South African artist in Italy. Curated by Daniele De Luigi, the show presents key works from recent years, including the video installation 'Love Story' (2016) featuring over twenty hours of interviews with refugees and asylum seekers, later reenacted by Hollywood actors Alec Baldwin and Julianne Moore. 'Digest' (2020) comprises 1001 painted videocassettes bearing titles from the home-video era. 'Labour,' an ongoing series begun in 2017, shows six women giving birth, played in reverse. Breitz, born in Johannesburg in 1972, represented South Africa at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. Her practice examines mass media's influence on identity and social dynamics. In an interview, she discusses how mainstream media shapes perception, the attention economy, and the violence of distracted information consumption. She notes that the pandemic amplified the tyranny of the attention economy. 'Labour' features a fictional 'Matricial Decree' outlining a feminist agenda, with titles like 'Labour (PMURT)'—'TRUMP' reversed—referencing autocratic leaders. Breitz emphasizes that birth footage is only viewable in exhibition contexts to preserve intimacy.