Leo Marz June, 2020 - Webflow
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Leo Marz July, 2020 Zapopan, 1979 Lives and works in Monterrey The origin of his ideas is abstract. A savage and chaotic stream that he accesses through artifacts, narratives, music and cultural products with ap- parent connections between them. The choice of the subjects he assesses is only a pretext to surrender himself to the flux of discontinuities that exist in the distance between great discussions about subjects of our time and all that we experiment in our daily lives but cannot manage to de- fine with words. His actions become visible through spacial montages that bring objects and subjects together, trying to tell stories. Leo Marz has an MFA in new media as part of the program by Transart Institute and Donau Universität in Krems, Austria. He has received sev- eral grants including: Programa Jóvenes Creadores del FONCA twice, Colección Jumex, Programa de Estímulo a la Creación y al Desarrollo Artístico (PECDA) and the third edition of the program Bancomer-MACG Arte Actual. He has shown his work at: the Biennial of Chechenia; the 2nd Biennial of Yucatán (honorary mention on installation), Palazzo delle Arti in Na- poli, South by Southwest in Austin, CMJ Music Marathon in New York, Center for Curatorial Studies Bard Hessel Museum in Annandale-on-Hudson, Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris; Steve Turner Contemporary in Los Angeles, Museo de Arte Moderno, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Casa del Lago, MUCA Roma in Mexico City and Museo MARCO in Mon- terrey. He has given several workshops in museums such as Museo de las Américas in Denver; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City and Museo de Arte Manuel Felguérez in Zacatecas. From 2008 to 2012 he was professor at CEDIM in Monterrey. He co-directed La conversación, a program focused on the transdisciplinary production of contemporary art. He was co-curator in the videoart program Círculos de Confusión: Caos Social y Ficciones Dominantes for Transitio_MX 04. He was resident curator in Object Not Found where he developed a series of exhibitions, video programs, conferences and created an online fo- rum on discussion and critic on emerging artistic practices in Nuevo León during the first decade of the XXI Century. He was local curator for the XII Bienal FEMSA. For three years he directed Lugar Común, a space for poetic production in Monterrey. He is currently the director of the UDEM’s art school.
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Monolito The Monolito series begins with a cartoon that eventually turns into a series of geometric shapes and surfaces increasingly removed from their original context. As in White Ninja or #CC, the rationale of these works is based on sampling: an initial identifiable source that eventually blurs and fades away through iteration: the very same thing being gradually transformed. Monolito: banners, performances, books, paintings... This series premiered as a part of the Proyectos Impala program, an itinerant show by curator Alejandro Luperca Morales, consisting of a cargo truck traveling through several locations in Ciudad Juárez. Exhibitions and workshops were organized in the massive container of the trailer. Given this project’s nature at, Marz chose to use an icon recognizable by members of different generations that would serve as a sort of teaser for enter- ing the field of art. Using the most recognizable character in a Japanese cartoon series as a starting point, is similar to the use of horror in Trampa Macabra. It is about thinking, using these elements to build a narrative to make images flow and to communicate. The cartoon character is itself only an excuse to raise a number of questions and to get painting. The ultimate goal is to reflect on the world we live in. At this premiere, Monolito came to be through small-format paintings which could be rearranged each time the trailer arrived in a new part of town. Introducing a practice that would become commonplace in this series, the work invaded the streets through murals and public composi- tions created in the site where the trailer parked. Ever since, the pieces in this series have appeared in diverse formats and dimensions, ranging from smaller canvases to publications and even to large-scale pieces designed to interact with the architectural space. At MARCO Museum in Monterrey, for instance, the space itself was made up of large canvases, paintings, and interventions on the museum’s walls. There, Monolito evolved from being an object to become a setting or an at- mospheric installation of sorts. This display then turned into an ideal spot for selfies and both group and individual photos, once again mutating into images that started to circulate on the Internet and to have, as it happens in this medium, a life of their own.
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Monolito, 2017 Installation view Mural and bench Acrylic on concrete and wood 600 x 2400 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Monolito (03/4040AC), 2018 Monolito (01/4040AC), 2018 Monolito (04/4040AC), 2018 Acrylic on linen 40 x 40 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Monolito (07/4040AC), 2018 Monolito (06/4040AC), 2018 Monolito (08/4040AC), 2018 Acrylic on linen 40 x 40 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Monolito (04/200200AL), 2018 Acrylic on linen 200 x 200 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Las batallas del display and #CC Las batallas del display and #CC, in which Leo Marz moved away from film production to zero in —with spectacular lighting— on his pictorial work. It is worth stressing that both series originated in a digital field. While working from home to office, the artist searched and saved images to cre- ate visual compositions using his computer and cell phone. In This way, he was able to create works that found their way into canvas and other media, becoming a whole pictorial revolution. The paintings included in Las batallas del display were created by superimposing layers of screenshots, resulting in geometric elements which Marz reconfigured into abstract compositions. These pieces have been displayed on canvases as well as directly on the walls of the exhibition room, emphasizing that the word “display” of the title refers not only to the virtual world of digital screens, but also to the possibility they have to unfolding and reproduce itself in a tangible space. As for the pieces of the #CC series, they were produced through saturating and superimposing digital images. This series, also known as laser paintings —because they are printed using a laser printer, and then transferred to the prepared canvas— has a certain musical quality reminis- cent of the loops, beats and samplers that Marz has produced as a professional musician —a career that has evolved over the years alongside his work as a visual artist, especially with the White Ninja project. In the timelessness of the digital era, these series of paintings -along with the one that lends its name to this publication- have transformed the artist’s production process. The type of work they involve, the amount of time they take to conceive and dedicate to them are factors which gradually transform each of the series. That is, more than the realization of the ideas, it is the day-to-day activities that have transformed them throughout the years. Not the conceptual mechanism but the actual practice itself. Yet, Leo Marz is neither a purist nor a proponent of specific media formats, so my suspicion is that one day there will be new footage filled with fresh filming locations and new camerawork where pictorial reflection will no longer play the starring role. How will Christina Perez’s portrayal be perceived and interpreted in fifteen years’ time? For the moment, in this image-saturated world, dominated by the unfiltered and never-end- ing scrolling through mobile phones and the 4G Network, painting serves as a decelerating tool to stop time and reflect about images. Leo Marz is an artist within historian’s glasses, hooked up to high-speed Wi-Fi 24/7. Esteban King
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 La nueva onda del silencio, 2017 Installation view El cuarto de máquinas, Mexico City
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Batallas del display (01/140160AC), 2018 Acrylic on canvas 140 x 160 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Las batallas del display, 2017 Acrylic on linen 80 x 80 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Las batallas del display, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 160 x 260 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Las batallas del display, 2017 Acrylic on canvas 80 x 60 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Un buen final (de la serie Las batallas del display), 2019 Acrylic on canvas 300 x 250 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Las batallas del display, 2018 Installation view MURA, Guadalajara
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 we have many, many folders (detail), 2017 Acrylic on canvas Variable measures
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 we have many, many folders (detail), 2017 Acrylic on canvas Variable measures
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 we have many, many folders (detail), 2017 Acrylic on canvas Variable measures
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 we have many, many folders, 2017 Installation view ESPAC, Mexico City
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 La nueva onda del silencio, 2017 Installation view El cuarto de máquinas, Mexico City
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 #cc_200*01, 2018 Dry toner and acrylic on canvas 200 x 200 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 #cc (03), 2019 Dry toner and acrylic on canvas 60 x 60 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Untitled from the series #cc, 2019 Dry toner and acrylic on canvas, wall in- tervention 80 x 80 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 El viento (de la serie #cc), 2019 Dry toner and acrylic on canvas 160 x 480 cm 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 2019 Oil on canvas 65 x 60 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Bailout A Million of Good Reasons to Become a Millionaire was a 2006 drawing project by Damián Ontiveros in which he depicted Adam Smith while performing actions to produce wealth. It consisted of 563 master drawings that were copied 1776 times (first print of The Wealth of Nations) by manual labor of people from different contexts: art students, blue collar workers, even communities of migrants. His intention was to complete a million of drawings each of them costing a dollar to create a million dollar art work. The production process, through which the foundations of modern capitalism and the mechanism of free market were satirised, clashed into a series of misfortunes, provoking its demise. Damián quit working on it in 2010. With Bailout, Leo Marz has gathered funds from Instituto Zacatecano de Cultura and CENART to rescue the project. He rearticulates the ma- chinery of A Million of Good Reasons to Become a Millionaire to talk about the collapse of the economic system, through a reenacment of the use of public funding to try to keep it running (TARP, Fobaproa, etc.)
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Bailout, 2014 Installation view Marble, drawings on paper, inkjet prints on paper and gold painted metal cubes Variable measures
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 CHATS Leo Marz has a deep interest in how new media modifies the way we represent ourselves and create our own public self with the multiplicity of fictions surrounding us. The same ones that had modified their own narrative structures thanks to platforms like Youtube and the different social networks. Phenomenon that, at the same time, alter the way we contextualize ourselves and create our own story / history. Departing from Pasolini’s idea about the unique capacity of cinema to reproduce reality, differentiating it from the other arts, and in that reality is constituted solely by multiple fleeting examples. It is to say by particular cases by means of which we are able to include / understand behav- iors, gestures and attitudes of our resemblances. We could assert that we can produce sense thanks to the understanding of therelations between these fragments of reality. CHATS is a video series based on actual MSN Conversations collected by José Jiménez Ortiz for his My Received Files project. They are per- formed by my family and close friends. Every episode deals with a different aspect affected during virtual interactions like time, space, language, identity, etc. Marz’s intention is to address this fragmentation and uncertainty. As Mario Pezzella says: “Movies express by nature of its technique and production the experience of the discontinuity that the ‘new machines’ introduce in every aspect of common life.”
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 CHATS E04, 2011 Video HD 10:51 min
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 CHATS E03, 2011 Video HD 02:47 min
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 CHATS E05, 2011 Video HD 01:49 min
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 CHATS E01, 2011 Video HD 02:28 min
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Don’t Look Behind (Trampa Macabra) In Trampa Macabra a curator turns into a detective and starts the hunt for an assassin who removes and collects Dr. Lakra tattoos. The project is a reflexion about the life span of cultural products and, above all, of cult films in the post-internet era. The potential of the fullfilment of the movie is suspended to analyze their development in the mediatic resources offered by new technologies. Its deterioration, fragmentation, dis- memberment, recomposition, possible translations, dubbing, supports, etc. are recovered as creating platforms and to analyze an overflow of products generated by consumers of pop culture. Interested in the genre and of its production forms, Marz plays with aesthetic and conceptual elements that allow him to travel between produc- tion resources of 70’s cinema and the mediatic platforms and broadcasting nowadays.
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Trampa Macabra, 2014 Brilliant white enamel on wall 300 x 1000 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Trampa Macabra a.k.a. Don’t Look Behind, 2014 Acrylic and led sign 70 x 300 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 T rampa Macabra, 2014 HD video projection
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Trampa Macabra, 2014 HD video projection
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Trampa Macabra, 2014 HD video projection
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Trampa Macabra, 2014 HD video projection
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Dead Ringers The paintings depict two nearly identical film stills from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. They portray the scene in which Scottie ( James Stewart) observes Madeleine (Kim Novak) sitting on a museum bench gazing at a portrait of Carlotta Valdes. Marz had two identical twins to create the paintings for him and they will be installed on opposite walls. A close comparison will show that although they differ slightly, the paintings de- pict the same scene. The twin paintings are accompanied by a slide projection showing brief texts that summarize the plots of other films. Scenic painters were hired to paint the texts on linen, then photographed the paintings, and then incinerated them so all that remains are their ashes. The plot summaries that he selected could easily be mistaken with that of Vertigo. The installation also includes two wooden boxes, one named Gimmick and the other Fake. Gimmick contains a certificate from Marz attesting to the fact that the two paintings were created by identical twins together with blood samples for possible future DNA testing. Fake houses the slides and the ashes from the burned paintings.
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Dead ringers, 2012 Installation view Two oil paintings on canvas 180 x 99 cm each; wooden box containing certificate, hair and blood samples of identical twins who painted them; wooden box containing slides and ashes from burned paintings and slide projector (06:40 min)
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Dead ringers, 2012 Oil painting 180 x 99 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Dead ringers, 2012 Oil painting 180 x 99 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Dead ringers, 2012 Intallation detail Wooden box containing slides and ashes from burned paintings
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Dead ringers, 2012 Installation detail Wooden box containing certificate and blood samples of identical twins who painted them
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Yet Unnamed, three exercises on contextual materiality The history of ideas could be approached by relating them to that which makes them possible. This is because it has not been comprehended in terms of continuity, but rather in function of changes and transformations that follow time-space based data to be analyzed. Foucault says that the history of ideas truly starts when the multiple character of truth was understood. That is to say, ideas vary upon different cultures and, to no- tice it, it is precise to document the effects of rupture in history of the diverse ways of thinking of the actors and semantic variations of language which do not allow us to conceive a history of ideas homogenous and continuous. During Marz’s residency at PAN Studios Program he developed a project focused on the possible leaks existing between a museum and its ar- chive, generators of meaning, and its context. He interested in how these leaks, which are often presented as discussions, provoke the regenera- tion of signifiers and future context through dialogue. Poetically, this discussions may produce enough energy to create a symbolic big bang that would allow us travel in time letting us trace a memory for the future.
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Ferrante Imperato Dell’Historia Naturale, 1599 Wikipedia version (left) and the original image taken from the manuscript section from the Naples Library (right).
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Archive Wall, 2010 Museum wall painted in layers with all of the colors it has been historically painted 700 x 400 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Big bang, 2010 Pigments used in neapolitan fireworks and a selection of the top 10 discussions at Ra- dio Pan about the City of Naples 250 x 250 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Fantascienza Napolitana, 2010 Video HD 6:00 min
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Justin Case this is the end This exhibition is articulated through six projects. The name of the exhibition may suggest a wordplay; nevertheless it refers to a real person. Jus- tin Case is an actual character with whom Marz held an interview regarding the literal meaning of his name. Within the context of this exhibi- tion, this reference becomes a suggestion to lucubrated fictions on what “could happen” in case the world came to an end. The aesthetic dwellings proposed by the artist take off from apocalyptic imagery or the notion of “end” of culture, in order to confabulate fic- tional sceneries through Casa del Lago’s documents, biographical records, drawings, as well as postmedia projections and museographical mon- tages. Through this heterogeneous combination of formats and the collaborative methodology of “featuring”, this exhibition involves procedures common to contemporary art, such as archival simulation and institutional memory; the narrative potential of indexes, testimonies, and histor- ical documents; and the construction of false imprints through drawings and video footage. Such convolution traces temporary lines between ambiguous contexts and hypertextual resonances, unfolding narratives that incite us to make hypothetic speculations about the “end” as cultural logic.
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Leo Marz feat. Oswaldo Ruiz Portrait of Justin Case, 2010 Photo print 40 x 50 cm
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Leo Marz feat. Rubén Gutiérrez NO ONE will become saved from eternal damnation after Friday, 21, 2011 Cada lunes se acaba el mundo, 2011 Charcoal on paper and Video HD
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Leo Marz feat. Pablo Rasgado La Historia como Espacio Negativo del Fu- turo, 2011 Graphite dust on wall
Leo Marz Project selection July, 2020 Index awaiting to be archived, 2011 Materials used to produce and mount the show
Leo Marz CV July, 2020 Leo Marz 2018 Mexico City, Mexico 2012 Zapopan, 1979 Las batallas del display, Alternativa Once, Los irrespetuosos, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Monterrey, Mexico #núcleo, Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico Mexico City, Mexico STUDIES City, Mexico MFA in New Media, Transart Institute and 2017 Mitos oficiales, Laboratorio de Oaxaca, Oaxa- Donau Universität, 2006 – 2008, Krems, Monolito, Proyectos Impala, Chihuahua, Mex- La imagen perdida, Museo de Arte Raúl An- ca, Mexico Austria ico guiano, Guadalajara, Mexico Los impolíticos, Espacio de Arte Contemporá- Bachelor’s degree in History. UACH. Chihua- 2012 2017 neo, Montevideo, Uruguay hua, Chihuahua Dead Ringers, Steve Turner Contemporary, Forma sobre fondo, Proyectos Monclova, Mexi- Los Angeles, USA co City, Mexico 2011 Technical carrer in analog photography Escue- Tiempo de sospecha, Museo de Arte Moderno, la Americana de Fotografía. Monterrey, Mexi- Realidad in Absentia, Muno, Zacatecas, Mexico La nueva onda del silencio, El cuarto de máqui- Mexico City, Mexico co nas, Mexico City, Mexico 2011 2010 Bachelors degree in plastic arts, UDLA-P. Justin Case este sea el fin, Casa del Lago, Mexi- proxy, Atski Gallery; NODE Gallery y Studio Second Coming, Hessel Museum of Art, New Puebla, Mexico co City, Mexico 7044, Helsinski, Finland York, USA Diploma in world history of cinema. Cinete- 2009 2015 Los impolíticos, Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Na- ca Nuevo León. Monterrey, Mexico Cog. No-Automático, Monterrey, Mexico Visualizar, Ex-Convento del Carmen, Guada- ples, Italy lajara, Mexico SOLO SHOWS GROUP SHOWS 2009 2020 2020 Centro Cultural Tijuana, Tijuana, Mexico CHPPDNSCRWD, Yautepec gallery, Mexico XIV Bienal FEMSA Inestimable Azar, Morel- If You Like This, You’ll Love That, Collar- City, Mexico ia y Pátzcuaro, México works, Nueva York, EUA 2014 La voluntad de la piedra, Museo de Arte Car- RESIDENCIES 2019 2018 rillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico 2019, Taller Los Guayabos, Guadalajara, Mex- Aquellos mundos, Galería Hilario Galguera, Registro 05/Enfocar la mirada, Museo MAR- ico Mexico City, Mexico CO Monterrey MX 2013 Toda la memoria del mundo, Casa del Lago, 2012, The Banff Center FONCA, Banff, Can- Ficción y tiempo, Centro Cultural Tlatelolco, Mexico City, Mexico ada
Leo Marz CV July, 2020 2010, PAN Studios, Naples, Italy Jóvenes Creadores, FONECA, Nuevo León, OTHER ACTIVITIES CONFERENCES Mexico Curatorial activity 2017 2009, SPACES World Artist Program, Cleve- 2018 – Currently Fantasmas, Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez, land, USA 2009 Director of the Curatorial Program of the Juarez City, Mexico Jóvenes Creadores, Fondo Nacional de la Cul- CRGS-UDEM, Monterrey, Mexico 2008, SPACE INVADERS, Denver, USA tura y las Artes FONCA, Mexico City, Mexi- 2015 co 2018 Fantasmas, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Tijuana, GRANTS AND AWARDS Twice-Told Tales, Peana Projects. Monterrey, Mexico 2018 – 2021 2008 Mexico Sistema Nacional de Creadores, FONCA and La Colección/Fundación Jumex, Mexico City, 2014 CONACULTA, Mexico Mexico 2016 – 2018 Fantasmas, Feria Internacional del Libro Gua- Artistic Director of Lugar Común, Monterrey, dalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico 2013 Jóvenes Creadores, FONCA, Nuevo León, Mexico Mexico Acquisition prize Reseña, artwork Tunnel 2013 Mountain, Monterrey, Mexico 2007 2015 – 2016 El relato vence a la muerte, Documentaries Emergency Chechnya Biennale Prize XII Bienal FEMSA local curator, Monterrey, Tour Ambulante, MARCO, Monterrey, Mexi- Scholarship for abroad residencies, FONCA Mexico co and CONACULTA, Mexico 2006 Jóvenes Creadores, FONECA, Nuevo León, 2011 2008 Jóvenes Creadores of FONCA and CONA- Mexico Círculos de Confusión: Caos Social y Fic- Metapong, American Association of Museums CULTA, Mexico City, Mexico ciones Dominantes, Transitio_MX 04, Mexi- Annual Meeting, Denver, USA XXVI Encuentro Nacional de Arte Joven, co City, Mexico 2012 Aguascalientes, Mexico 2006 Programa BBVA Bancomer-MACG Arte Ac- 2008 Metapong, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, tual 2012 – 2014, BBVA Bancomer and Mu- Friends of Transart Institute MFA scholar- Mixtapers ‘R Us’, grade exhibition of the Tran- Venice, Italy seo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico ship, Stockdale, USA sart Institute 2006 – 2008 generation, O.K Centrum für Gegenwartskunst, Linz, Austria TEACHING 2011 2004 2018 – Currently Estímulo Fiscal a la Creación Artística Azúcar en la vía láctea, 2ª Bienal de Yucatán, 2005 – 2009 Bachelor of Arts’ Academic Director at Uni- CONARTE-Bricos, CONARTE, Mexico Honored Mention, Yucatán, Mexico Curator at Object Not Found, Monterrey, versidad de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico 2010 Mexico
Leo Marz CV June, 2020 2017 – 2018 Professor of the Bachelor of Arts at Universi- dad de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico 2013 – 2015 Co-director of the transdisciplinary program La Conversación, Museo Felguérez, Zacatecas, Mexico 2009 – 2012 Subject professor at the CEDIM, Monterrey, Mexico 2009 – 2011 Invited workshop facilitator, La Curtiduría Centro de Artes Visuales, Oaxaca, Mexico 2008 Workshop about prejudices and perception through the arts, Inside/Outside/North & South, Museo de las Americas, Denver, USA
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