Candice Breitz: Love Story

Love Story 2016 is a video installation by South African artist Candice Breitz (b. 1972) that considers whose voices we are willing to listen to in a media-saturated world.

Evoking the global scale of the refugee crisis, Love Story presents the stories of six people from different parts of the world who have been forced to flee unbearable circumstances in their home countries. They feature Sarah Ezzat Mardini, who escaped war-torn Syria; José Maria João, a former child soldier from Angola; Mamy Maloba Langa, who fled sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Shabeena Francis Saveri, an Indian transgender activist; Luis Ernesto Nava Molero, a political dissident from Venezuela; and Farah Abdi Mohammed, a young atheist from Somalia.

In a first room, actors Alec Baldwin and Julianne Moore re-perform fragments from these interviews. These performances are followed by the original full-length interviews, presented in a second space. Love Story reflects on a media environment that prioritises celebrity over the real-life experiences of people facing adversity. Blockbuster films or celebrity-led charity campaigns may move audiences to tears, but those most affected are seldom given the opportunity to tell their own stories.

This is the first presentation of Love Story in the UK.