Having heard countless Jamaicans evoke the way in which Bob Marley has affected their lives, Breitz decided that it was time, twenty years after Legend (the best-selling reggae album of all time) was released, to ‘return the album to Jamaica, in the same spirit that the Elgin marbles might one day be returned to Greece.’ Central to the reggae aesthetic, is the understanding that one original song, rhythm or melody, can give rise to any number of equally innovative versions, covers or remixes. Breitz invited thirty Jamaicans from all walks of life to sing their versions of Legend in a professional recording studio in Port Antonio, Jamaica. Each participant was invited to individually re-perform the entire Legend album from beginning to end. The resulting thirty performances are screened simultaneously on a wall of thirty monitors. Stubbornly insisting on the exact format of the original fourteen-track album, as if to acknowledge the undeniable role that marketing has played in the packaging of the Marley myth, Breitz’s Legend (A Portrait of Bob Marley) strips away the voice of Marley and the familiar musical arrangements, so that ultimately Marley remains present in the work only through the voices of his fans. The work thus invites us to imagine a charismatic cultural icon not as a monolithic and isolated figure, but rather as a complex composite of those whose stories he has told and those whose lives continue to be inflected through his music. Legend recognizes Marley’s continuing impact on Jamaican culture, but also considers the complex and delicate machinery of fan worship that generates every legend: the resulting installation is an a cappella portrait of the man who remains remarkable for having become the first third world superstar. Legend (A Portrait of Bob Marley) was shot in Port Antonio, Jamaica, in early 2005.
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