Candice Breitz is one of the strongest voices in contemporary art right now. Her highly topical, thought-provoking video installation Love Story was one of the most talked-about works at the Venice Biennale in 2017. With support from the New Carlsberg Foundation it is now to become a new highlight of the ARKEN collection.

Love Story is based on six people’s personal stories of fleeing from their home countries. The large video installation is shown in two rooms: first the audience see the two American actors Julianne Moore and Alec Baldwin in a fast-paced montage set up in cinema format, in which they talk about fleeing from violence, injustice, war and persecution. As the audience we feel with the two well known actors, even though they fall in and out of their roles and the stories are obviously not their own.

In an adjacent room six refugees trustingly share their heart-rending personal stories, each in their own video interview. Love Story turns the spotlight on the way popular culture and populism easily displace the uncomfortable truth about the humanitarian catastrophes that typify our picture of the world and affect millions of human lives.

Love story can be experienced at ARKEN from March 10, 2018. Read more about the work here.

Candice Breitz, Love Story, 2016. Courtesy Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg), Kaufmann Repetto (Milan) og KOW (Berlin)