Leo Marz March, 2022 - Webflow
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Leo Marz March, 2022
Leo Marz March, 2022 Zapopan, 1979 Lives and works in Monterrey The origin of his ideas is abstract. A savage and chaotic stream that he accesses through cultural artifacts with apparent connections between them. Starting from diverse thematic approaches —which in reality only operate as pretexts— Marz works around the flux of discontinuities that exist between great discussions of our time and all that we experiment in our daily lives but cannot manage to define 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 is part of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores (FONCA). As well, he has received several grants including: Programa Jóvenes Creadores del FON- CA 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. His work has been shown at PEANA, Museo Jumex, XIV Bienal FEMSA (comissioned artwork), the Biennial of Chechenia; the 2nd Bien- nial of Yucatán (honorary mention on installation), Palazzo delle Arti in Napoli, 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 Con- temporary in Los Angeles, Museo de Arte Moderno, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Casa del Lago, MUCA Roma in Mexico City and Mu- seo MARCO in Monterrey. In recent years his work has been included in public collections such as Colección Fundación M. 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 forum on discussion and critic on emerging artistic practices in Nuevo León during the first decade of the XXI Century. He was lo- cal curator for the XII Bienal FEMSA. For three years he directed Lugar Común, a space for poetic production in Monterrey. He is current- ly the director of the UDEM’s art school.
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022 Futuristic Flower Presented at PEANA (Monterrey) Futuristic Flower explores the visibility and circulation of everyday objects and those that derive from the artistic endeavor; and reviews how both operate and present themselves in the world, as well as in the exhibition hall through contemporary visual languages. The proposal highlights the points of convergence between the different approaches and interests that the artist has developed in his latest projects, such as the legacy of the history of painting in our present, the construction and ambiguity of the image, as well as the implications of the display in our way of perception. The interest in pictorial practice has been present —in one way or another— in all of Marz’s work; from questioning the function of the medium within cinematographic narratives, to confronting the canvas itself and producing paintings of diverse scales based on minimal gestures and games that wander between abstraction and figuration, as well as absence and presence. His practice can be thought from the crossings between the historical or canonical referents of painting and the unstable languages of the new audiovisual and digital media. The small format paintings are based on quick observational drawings, where the artist generates variations and dislocations between the traditional still life painting and the fragmented and sequenced operations of the contemporary image. Similarly, in Amazon Loop from the series Las batallas de display, Marz isolates and extracts the display from the Amazon website and turns it into a large- scale abstract painting, questioning the limits or possible dialogues between pictorial representation and graphic design, the wallpaper and the film or theatrical set, as well as the digital support and the canvas. Si cierras los ojos, desapareces, a diptych made with acrylic on canvas, is a translation that reviews the components of the image and how it operates in relation to human and social interactions. The grid in the work comes from a background used by digital applications such as Photoshop to represent the absence of information, that is, the non-existence of the image. The gesture of creating a painting whose subject is the lack of its own image creates a tension between presence and absence, which alludes to the binary mode of representation and transmission of information within digital technologies. The translation of the digital to the materiality of the canvas generates a transparent or invisible painting, deprived of its apparently perfect composition based on the pixel —a unique color entity—, the image is created from the careful but asymmetrical manual handling that characterizes the pictorial gesture. The invention of television made possible the leap between cinematographic and digital languages, since it gave rise to the electronic signal and therefore to the construction of the image through sweeps of information that are configured vertically (from top to bottom), which becomes a flattened image due to its technical impossibility of depth of field, thus allowing the massive entry of the close up, which is appropriated by the logics of digital technologies as the primary image of use to observe, record and interact. The piece is also a selfie in movement, and the difference between each of the paintings that make up the diptych is the almost imperceptible change implied by the blinking.
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022 The theme of absence is also present in the sculptures in the show. Rolling Chair Mat (for Hardwood Floor), is a glass copy of an office chair mat, Twin Double Spoon Rest is a bronze sculpture of a double spoon rest.1 Made from a reproduction of an object purchased through Amazon, this piece looks like a petal resting on a chroma green pole. Rather than “being”, the work “appears”. The green screen support serves as a footnote, and hints that the image of this piece is not finished, as that green chroma space is going to be replaced by something else, and “in reality” the object is floating in space four meters above the ground. Last on the list of three- dimensional objects is Yoga Swing Bracket, a bronze imitation of a reinforced wall bracket for suspension ropes.2 All three works come from objects that were produced to enable the existence of something else. We could say that they are wallpapers, green screen paint, Photoshop grids, dependent beings. What happens if these “nothings” become “somethings”? What would be its purpose for existence now? Does the status of artwork or monument grant them a new autonomy? The condition of objects —as well as nature— as subjects of appropriation by man, is evident throughout the history of art. Examples of this are still lifes, landscapes, and other motifs that have been pretexts for pictorial production at the service of human visual pleasure. However, there have also been other approaches. In 1949 the film Late Spring by the Japanese Yasujiro Ozu was released. In this movie we find a long and fixed shot of the domestic environment, where we see a pot, a rug, a window and the shadows of plants reflected on the wall. In this context, a cinematographic shot with these characteristics that shows “nothing” is highly unusual. It makes no sense to suspend or prolong time within the economic logics of cinema so as not to advance within the narrative. This fact serves as an introduction to the central work of the exhibition in question. From an intervention on the gallery wall, Marz dialogues with the history of cinematographic representation and transfers it to pictorial practice through muralism, with a piece that advances at a different speed and plays with the variation of scales, which confuses our gaze, presenting a scene that seems to be observed by someone non-human. As a mirror, the work And Click—and Suddenness investigates how we experience time and space. It shows us the difference and tension between the “real” and its representation in the audiovisual media. At the same time, it makes use of a scene where nothing seems to happen, of negative or lost time; it gives us a moment of reality—life is full of suspended moments—, of frozen times, of spaces full of past actions. The drawing made with charcoal is the result of the superposition of two spaces, the domestic and the museum, in which through an editing exercise—of elimination of elements—the artist puts in conflict the exact translation of subjects and objects. A labyrinthine painting, which refers us to the digital apparatus and the logics of the hyperlink. The piece is transformed over time, it is an image in process that from the minimum change invites us to take a closer look at what seems peaceful, daily or fixed. Text by the curator of the show, Laura Orozco Photos courtesy of PEANA
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Futuristic Flower, 2022
Installation view
PEANA, Monterrey
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Futuristic Flower, 2022
Installation view
PEANA, Monterrey
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Futuristic Flower, 2022
Installation view
PEANA, Monterrey
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Futuristic Flower, 2022
Installation view
PEANA, Monterrey
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Yoga Swing Bracket, 2022
Bronze
12 x 12 x 12 cm
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Si cierras los ojos, desapareces, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
Diptych; 160 x 120 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
There’s a certain Slant of light, 2022
Oil on canvas
55 x 46 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Details of Si cierras los ojos, desapa-
reces, 2021Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022 The Ancient Incident The Ancient Incident is an immersive installation by Leo Marz that connects different moments, from the monumental historic sculpture to the contemporary snapshot. A cast bronze finger is the instigator of this chain of associations. The sculpture is an exact copy of the finger of General Ignacio Zaragoza on a monument in Monterrey. Inspired by the fact that the Battle of Puebla (May 5, 1862) was the first to be relayed in real time by telegram, Marz associates this with contemporary interfaces where news are accessed immediately via touchscreens. The installation also includes sculptural drawings, one of which is derived from a group selfie found online. Between these poles of one historically significant and one fleeting moment, Marz suggests how modern technology and art render moments visible or invisible, and how the past, present, and future may be connected in unpredictable ways. The Ancient Incident is the continuation of Marz’s Las señales muertas (2020) shown during the public project Regresar al origen: Las fuentes de la Macroplaza presented by Las Artes Monterrey. As part of the project, Marz will produce a series of actions attempting to suspend Zaragoza’s disembodied finger at the height of the original monument in the Museo Jumex’s plaza. Each attempt will employ a different support from cinematic chromo-keying, where the public will be confronted with a seemingly absurd physical situation, to an online documentation that will render the structure invisible leaving the finger floating in the air. More than an investigation of the line in space, Marz reconfigures the drawn line to suspend it and create dynamic situations where the public is implicated physically and metaphorically.
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
The Ancient Incident, 2021
Installation view
Museo Jumex, Mexico City
© Photo by Ramiro ChavesLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
The last time we saw each other, I forgot
to tell you, 2021
Enamel on steel
305 x 155 cm
Museo Jumex, 2021
© Photo by Ramiro ChavesLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
So, we are all guests, and no one knows
anyone, 2021
Brass and metal chain
360 x 570 cm
Museo Jumex, 2021
© Photo by Ramiro ChavesLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
I kiss you - across hundreds of separat-
ing years, 2021
Xalapa travertine marble, silicone
hosepipe, LED strip, brass and steel rod
Variable dimensions
Museo Jumex, 2021
© Photo by Ramiro ChavesLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
The Ancient Incident, 2021
Museo Jumex
© Photo by Ramiro ChavesLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Old Stories for Young Readers (still),
2021
Performance
11:30 min
https://vimeo.com/659424927Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Old Stories for Young Readers (still),
2021
Performance
11:30 min
https://vimeo.com/659424927Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Old Stories for Young Readers (still),
2021
Performance
11:30 min
https://vimeo.com/659424927Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Las señales muertas, 2020
Exact copy of the finger of General
Ignacio Zaragoza monument in
MonterreyLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Las señales muertas, 2020
Polished bronze (lost wax cast) with
anticorrosive varnish and UV protection
Variable dimensionsLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022 Humo ajeno This body of work was comissioned by the XIV Bienal FEMSA and presented at the Centro Cultural Clavijero (Morelia). Marz’s large format paintings reflect on the postrevolutionary mural paintings from Pátzcuaro and Morelia, mainly on those painted by Juan O’Gorman at the Biblioteca Gertrudis Bocanegra and by Philip Guston next to Reuben Kadish at the Museo Regional. In these works, there is a time clash: O’Gorman’s mural depicts in a single frame, scenes from the prehispanic era to the twentieth century, while Guston’s and Kadish’s work present a hooded figure which can be associated with the Inquisition or the Ku Klux Klan. Something similar happens on Marz’s paintings, which gather a substantial number of digital drawings made during his quarantine time in 2020. This group of drawings create ambiguous compositions which erase limits or mark intersections between bodies, objects and spaces. These suggestive shapes distinguish themselvels from the realistic style characteristic of O’Gorman’s, Kadish’s and Guston’s works, justo as the paintings by Gerardo Murillo -Dr. Atl- or Diego Rivera, found in the same room where Marz’s pieces are being exhibited. The fragments presented are an invitation to discern, connect and relate them with Atl’s or Rivera’s works. Humo ajeno also incorporates a series of copper sculptures that emulate drawings’ traces and, altogether, they seem to engage a conversation between them, a potential narrative which remains open. Project made in collaboration with Marco Antonio Paz Ornelas - La Mexicana Galería, Santa Clara del Cobre.
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Humo ajeno, 2020
Installation view
XIV Bienal FEMSA
Centro Cultural Clavijero
MoreliaLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Humo ajeno (iii), 2020
Acrylic on canvas
340 x 245 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Humo ajeno, 2020
Copper sculpture
Variable dimensionesLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Humo ajeno, 2020
Copper sculpture
Variable dimensionesLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022 The Last Buffet For this show, Leo Marz prepared a new body of work that oscillates between the limits of the symbolic, the imaginary and the real. This project fits into the artist’s constant search for recognizing the events that allow us to perceive the passage of time and its effects in a world affected by the era of technological revolution. Marz’s imaginary is plagued with bodies. With objects that cannot be located. Certain subjects that become something else when located. It is possible to recognize the digital origin as a reference on their faces. The shinning gradient of their screens that, just as the paint itself, traverses them. The quantic scale of their images in their eyes. Big and small, far and near, are redefined inside the world they have generated in their cellphones. The works propose scenes or daily landscapes that perhaps, superficially, belong to a stream of universal connections and interactions. A series of massive windows to globalization. However, for the good observer, their protagonists coexist in a constant and progressive state of isolation. It takes one to know one. Awesome haircuts Shoes unused Amazon loop
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
The Last Buffet, 2020
Installation view
Pequod Co., Mexico CityLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Aparezco como un me gusta, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
140 x 120 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Millennial Love, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
225 x 150 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Follow me quietly, 2020
Painting: Acrylic on MDF (installation)
100 x 200 cm
Sculpture: Steel, electrostatic paint and
polish
Variable measuresLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Follow me quietly, 2020
Installation
Variable dimensionsLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Follow me quietly, 2020
Acrylic on MDF
100 x 200 cm
Intervened every week during the course
of the show, changes were registered to
become a GIFLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022 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 Mo- rales, 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 genera- tions that would serve as a sort of teaser for entering 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 pub- lic compositions 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 it- self 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 atmospheric installation of sorts. This display then turned into an ideal spot for selfies and both group and indi- vidual 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 March, 2022
Monolito, 2018
Installation view
Museo MARCO, MonterreyLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Monolito (05/100100AL), 2017
Acrylic on linen
100 x 100 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Monolito (07/100120AL), 2017
Acrylic on linen
120 x 100 xmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Monolito (02/6048AL), 2017
Acrylic on linen
60 x 48 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Monolito, 2017
Installation view
Mural and bench
Acrylic on concrete and wood
600 x 2400 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Monolito (03/6070AL), 2017
Acrylic on linen
60 x 70 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Monolito, 2018
Installation view
Museo MARCO, MonterreyLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Monolito (03/4040AC), 2018
Monolito (01/4040AC), 2018
Monolito (04/4040AC), 2018
Acrylic on linen
40 x 40 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Monolito (07/4040AC), 2018
Monolito (06/4040AC), 2018
Monolito (08/4040AC), 2018
Acrylic on linen
40 x 40 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Monolito (04/200200AL), 2018
Acrylic on linen
200 x 200 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
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 pictori-
al 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
create 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 exhibi-
tion 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 la-
ser paintings —because they are printed using a laser printer, and then transferred to the prepared canvas— has a certain musical quality
reminiscent 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-ending 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 KingLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
La nueva onda del silencio, 2017
Installation view
El cuarto de máquinas, Mexico CityLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Batallas del display (01/140160AC),
2018
Acrylic on canvas
140 x 160 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Las batallas del display, 2017
Acrylic on linen
80 x 80 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Las batallas del display, 2018
Acrylic on canvas
160 x 260 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Las batallas del display, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 60 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Un buen final (de la serie Las batallas
del display), 2019
Acrylic on canvas
300 x 250 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Las batallas del display, 2018
Installation view
MURA, GuadalajaraLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
we have many, many folders (detail),
2017
Acrylic on canvas
Variable measuresLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
we have many, many folders (detail),
2017
Acrylic on canvas
Variable measuresLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
we have many, many folders (detail),
2017
Acrylic on canvas
Variable measuresLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
we have many, many folders, 2017
Installation view
ESPAC, Mexico CityLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
La nueva onda del silencio, 2017
Installation view
El cuarto de máquinas, Mexico CityLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
#cc_200*01, 2018
Dry toner and acrylic on canvas
200 x 200 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
#cc (03), 2019
Dry toner and acrylic on canvas
60 x 60 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Untitled from the series #cc, 2019
Dry toner and acrylic on canvas, wall in-
tervention
80 x 80 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
The Wind (from #cc series), 2019
Dry toner and acrylic on canvas
160 x 480 cm
1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982,
2019
Oil on canvas
65 x 60 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022 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 machinery of A Million of Good Reasons to Become a Millionaire to talk about the collapse of the economic system, through a reenac- ment of the use of public funding to try to keep it running (TARP, Fobaproa, etc.)
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Bailout, 2014
Installation view
Marble, drawings on paper, inkjet prints
on paper and gold painted metal cubes
Variable measuresLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022 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 multi- plicity 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 / histo- ry. 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 / un- derstand behaviors, 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 performed 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 ex- press 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 March, 2022
CHATS E04, 2011
HD Video
10:51 minLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
CHATS E03, 2011
HD Video
02:47 minLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
CHATS E05, 2011
HD Video
01:49 minLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
CHATS E01, 2011
HD Video
02:28 minLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022 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 full- filment of the movie is suspended to analyze their development in the mediatic resources offered by new technologies. Its deterioration, fragmentation, dismemberment, 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 production resources of 70’s cinema and the mediatic platforms and broadcasting nowadays.
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Trampa Macabra, 2014
Brilliant white enamel on wall
300 x 1000 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Trampa Macabra a.k.a. Don’t Look Be-
hind, 2014
Acrylic and LED sign
70 x 300 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Trampa Macabra, 2014
HD video projectionLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Trampa Macabra, 2014
HD video projectionLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Trampa Macabra, 2014
HD video projectionLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Trampa Macabra, 2014
HD video projectionLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022 Dead Ringers The paintings depict two nearly identical film stills from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. They portray the scene in which Scottie (James Stew- art) 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 depict 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 at- testing 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 March, 2022
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 contain-
ing slides and ashes from burned paint-
ings and slide projector (06:40 min)Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Dead ringers, 2012
Oil painting
180 x 99 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Dead ringers, 2012
Oil painting
180 x 99 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Dead ringers, 2012
Intallation detail
Wooden box containing slides and ashes
from burned paintingsLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Dead ringers, 2012
Installation detail
Wooden box containing certificate and
blood samples of identical twins
who painted themLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022 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 compre- hended 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 dif- ferent cultures and, to notice 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 archive, generators of meaning, and its context. He interested in how these leaks, which are often presented as discussions, provoke the regeneration 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 March, 2022
Ferrante Imperato Dell’Historia Natu-
rale, 1599
Wikipedia version (left) and the original
image taken from the manuscript section
from the Naples Library (right).Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Archive Wall, 2010
Museum wall painted in layers with all of
the colors it has been historically painted
700 x 400 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Big bang, 2010
Pigments used in neapolitan fireworks
and a selection of the top 10 discussions
at Radio Pan about the City of Naples
250 x 250 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Fantascienza Napolitana, 2010
HD Video
6:00 minLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022 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 per- son. Justin Case is an actual character with whom Marz held an interview regarding the literal meaning of his name. Within the context of this exhibition, 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 confabu- late fictional sceneries through Casa del Lago’s documents, biographical records, drawings, as well as postmedia projections and mu- seographical montages. Through this heterogeneous combination of formats and the collaborative methodology of “featuring”, this exhi- bition involves procedures common to contemporary art, such as archival simulation and institutional memory; the narrative potential of indexes, testimonies, and historical documents; and the construction of false imprints through drawings and video footage. Such convolu- tion traces temporary lines between ambiguous contexts and hypertextual resonances, unfolding narratives that incite us to make hypo- thetic speculations about the “end” as cultural logic.
Leo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Leo Marz feat. Oswaldo Ruiz
Portrait of Justin Case, 2010
Photo print
40 x 50 cmLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Leo Marz feat. Rubén Gutiérrez
NO ONE will become saved from eter-
nal damnation after Friday, 21, 2011
Cada lunes se acaba el mundo, 2011
Charcoal on paper and HD videoLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Leo Marz feat. Pablo Rasgado
La Historia como Espacio Negativo del
Futuro, 2011
Graphite dust on wallLeo Marz Project selection March, 2022
Index awaiting to be archived, 2011
Materials used to produce and mount the
showLeo Marz CV March, 2022
Leo Marz 2019 GROUP SHOWS Nuevo León, Mexico
(Zapopan, 1979) Aquellos mundos, Galería Hilario Gal- 2022
guera, Mexico City, Mexico A Jab Line, a collaboration with Andrew Regresar al origen: Las Fuentes de Mac-
STUDIES Roberts, Pequod Co. at EXPO Chicago, Chi- roplaza, Festival Internacional de Santa
MFA in New Media, Transart Institute and 2018 cago, USA Lucía 2020 and Las Artes Monterrey, Mon-
Donau Universität, Krems, Austria Las batallas del display, Alternativa Once, terrey, Mexico
Monterrey, Mexico 2021
Technical career in Analog Photography, CREADORXS, Salón Cosa 2nd edition at If You Like This, You’ll Love That, Collar-
Escuela Americana de Fotografía, Monter- 2017 Bellwort Hotel, Guadalajara, Mexico works, New York, USA
rey, Mexico Monolito, Proyectos Impala, Chihuahua,
Mexico Una pintura no es una isla, Centro Cultural 2019
Bachelor of Fine Arts, UDLA-P, Puebla, Plaza Fátima, Nuevo León, Mexico Registro 05/Enfocar la mirada, MARCO
Mexico 2012 Museum, Monterrey, Mexico
Dead Ringers, Steve Turner Contemporary, Normal Exceptions: Contemporary Art in
SOLO SHOWS Los Angeles, USA Mexico, Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexi- 2018
2022 co Ficción y tiempo, Centro Cultural Tlatelolco,
Futuristic Flower, curated by Laura Orozco, Realidad in Absentia, Muno, Zacatecas, Mexico City, Mexico
PEANA, Monterrey, Mexico Mexico 2020
Afinidades electivas, Américas Mil500, #núcleo, Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico
2021 2011 Guadalajara, Mexico City, Mexico
The Ancient Incident, Museo Jumex, Mexico Justin Case This Is The End, Casa del Lago,
City, Mexico Mexico City, Mexico Festival Arte en Vivo, Fototeca Nuevo León, La imagen perdida, Museo de Arte Raúl
Monterrey, Mexico Anguiano, Guadalajara, Mexico
2020 2009
The Last Buffet, Pequod Co., Mexico City, Cog., No-Automático, Monterrey, Mexico Los objetos en el espejo están más cerca de 2017
Mexico lo que parece, Museo Autoservicio Antara, Forma sobre fondo, Proyectos Monclova,
PERFORMANCES Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City, Mexico
XIV Bienal FEMSA Inestimable Azar (comis- 2021
sioned work), Centro Cultural Clavijero, Old Stories for Young Readers, as part of A medida incierta, CONARTE in collabora- The New Wave of Silence, El cuarto de
Morelia, Mexico The Ancient Incident, Museo Jumex, Mexico tion with Galería Emma Molina and Alter- máquinas, Mexico City, Mexico
City, Mexico nativa Once Galería, Nave Generadores,Leo Marz CV March, 2022
proxy, Atski Gallery; NODE Gallery and Tiempo de sospecha, Museo de Arte Mod- Bunker o no Bunker, Ramis Barquet, Mon- 2013, Jóvenes Creadores of FONCA and
Studio 7044, Helsinski, Finland erno, Mexico City, Mexico terrey, Mexico CONACULTA, Mexico City, México
2015 2010 RESIDENCIES 2012, Programa BBVA Bancomer-MACG
Visualizar, Ex-Convento del Carmen, Gua- Second Coming, Hessel Museum of Art, 2019, Taller Los Guayabos, Guadalajara, Arte Actual 2012 – 2014, BBVA Bancomer
dalajara, Mexico New York, USA Mexico and Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico
La voluntad de la piedra, Centro Cultural 2009 2012, The Banff Center FONCA, Banff, 2011, Estímulo Fiscal a la Creación Artística
Tijuana, Tijuana, Mexico CHPPDNSCRWD, Yautepec gallery, Mexico Canada CONARTE-Bricos, CONARTE, Mexico
City, Mexico
2014 2010, PAN Studios, Naples, Italy 2010, Jóvenes Creadores of FONECA,
La voluntad de la piedra, Museo de Arte Una serie de microfascismos consecutivos y Nuevo León, Mexico
Carrillo Gil, Mexico City; Museo Amparo, sin fin, MUCA Roma, Mexico City, Mexico 2009, SPACES World Artist Program,
Puebla; Museo de Arte de Sonora, Sonora, Cleveland, USA 2009, Jóvenes Creadores of FONCA,
Mexico Los impolíticos, Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Mexico City, Mexico
Naples, Italy 2008, SPACE INVADERS, Denver, USA
2013 2008, La Colección/Fundación Jumex,
Toda la memoria del mundo, Casa del 2008 GRANTS & AWARDS Mexico City, Mexico
Lago, Mexico City, Mexico The Milagrosos, Space Invaders, Museo de 2021, Sistema Nuevo León para el impul-
las Américas, Denver, USA so artístico y la creación 2021, CONARTE, 2008, Jóvenes Creadores of FONECA,
2012 Mexico Nuevo León, Mexico
Los irrespetuosos, Museo de Arte Carrillo Cho Cosushi, Trajectories, New Life Shop
Gil, Mexico City, Mexico Gallery, Berlin, Germany 2018 – 2021, Sistema Nacional de 2007, Emergency Chechnya Biennale Prize,
Creadores, FONCA and CONACULTA, Istanbul, Turkey
Mitos oficiales, Laboratorio de Oaxaca, 2007 Mexico
Oaxaca, Mexico Me odio y quiero comprar, Galería Enrique 2007, Selection Salon National d’Art Con-
Guerrero, Mexico City, Mexico 2013, Acquisition prize Reseña, artwork temporain du Cadre d’Or, Espace Pierre
Los impolíticos, Espacio de Arte Contem- Tunnel Mountain, Monterrey, Mexico Cardin, Paris, France
poráneo, Montevideo, Uruguay 2006
All Together Now, Plataforma 06, Puebla, 2013, Scholarship for abroad residencies, 2006, Jóvenes Creadores of FONECA,
2011 Mexico FONCA and CONACULTA, Mexico Nuevo León, MexicoLeo Marz CV March, 2022
2006, Selection XXVI Encuentro Nacional 2011 terrey, Mexico 2008
de Arte Joven, Aguascalientes, Mexico Círculos de Confusión: Caos Social y Fic- Workshop about prejudices and perception
ciones Dominantes, Transitio_MX 04, Mexi- 2008 through the arts, Inside/Outside/North
2006, Friends of Transart Institute MFA co City, Mexico Metapong, American Association of Muse- & South, Museo de las Americas, Denver,
scholarship, Stockdale, USA ums Annual Meeting, Denver, USA USA
2008
2004, Azúcar en la vía láctea, 2ª Bienal de Mixtapers ‘R Us’, grade exhibition of the 2006
Yucatán, Honored Mention, Yucatán, Mexi- Transart Institute 2006 – 2008 generation, Metapong, Peggy Guggenheim Collection,
co O.K Centrum für Gegenwartskunst, Linz, Venice, Italy
Austria
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS TEACHING
Colección Fundación M, Mexico City, Mex- 2005 – 2009 2018 – Currently
ico Curator at Object Not Found, Monterrey, Bachelor of Arts’ Academic Director at Uni-
Mexico versidad de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
OTHER ACTIVITIES
CURATORIAL ACTIVITY CONFERENCES 2017 – 2018
2018 – Currently 2017 Professor of the Bachelor of Arts at Univer-
Director of the Curatorial Program of the Fantasmas, Museo de Arte de Ciudad sidad de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
CRGS-UDEM, Monterrey, Mexico Juárez, Juarez City, Mexico
2013 – 2015
2018 2015 Co-director of the transdisciplinary program
Twice-Told Tales, Peana Projects. Monter- Fantasmas, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Tijuana, La Conversación, Museo Felguérez, Zacate-
rey, Mexico Mexico cas, Mexico
2016 – 2018 2014 2009 – 2012
Artistic Director of Lugar Común, Monter- Fantasmas, Feria Internacional del Libro Subject professor at the CEDIM, Monterrey,
rey, Mexico Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico Mexico
2015 – 2016 2013 2009 – 2011
XII Bienal FEMSA local curator, Monterrey, El relato vence a la muerte, Documentaries Invited workshop facilitator, La Curtiduría
Mexico Tour Ambulante, MARCO Museum, Mon- Centro de Artes Visuales, Oaxaca, MexicoYou can also read
