María León

Statement

In my current artistic work, I use objects and materials of different historical and cultural values to explore a new order of relationship between them, creating new possible narratives. I understand my artistic research as a process that overflows the object itself to extend to other aesthetic languages such as video, drawing or photography, being therefore the idea of expanded object the one I feel most comfortable with when describing my artistic practice.

My way of working is characterised by being an open and intuitive process. I collect objects or materials for which I feel an irresistible attraction and it is during living together with them in the studio when I intervene them by means of different processes. These processes attempt to generate tension or propitiate encounters between them and are often the result of trial and error. They include intervention, decontextualisation or deconstruction of the object, removing it from its original function to create autonomous aesthetic pieces.

I work with materials of different temporalities, coming from the field of architecture or domestic spheres, as well as with others of unstable narratives. Especially the temporality of the materials is very present in my work, where the fourth dimension time is as important as the specific relationship with the exhibition space. This is manifested in the constant reference to the fragment, the rest or the trace, sometimes as a consequence of a performative process with the objects.

In my installations of expanded objects, the elements depend on each other for meaning. Gas hoses that twist in the exhibition space like the snake of the Laooconte, fragile structures with pieces of candelabra, dismembered wax elements that remind one of votive offerings, a mobile that functions as a hinge, are some of my latest works that seem to activate in a system of fragile relationships held only in the constant flow of their possibilities of interpellation and interpretation.

GlogauAIR Project

The proposal Hold My Hand explores the notion of support. Support receives something that exerts force or pressure on it, without changing or suffering any damage, allowing an apparent balance of power through resistance. Understanding resistance as a duality that can be interpreted both as a mechanism of protection against a traumatic experience, or as a form of creative empowerment, here the objects interpellate each other and interpellate the viewer in the exhibition space as an emotional place, not only seeking mutual support or perhaps relief, but new ways of relating to each other.

Installation and Object.

CV Summary

María León (Mérida, 1984) holds a degree and a diploma of Advance Studies in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid. Since 2010 she lives and works in Berlin, where she has furthered he artistic education through her participation in the Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt in 2017. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at venues such as Künstquartier Bethanien (Berlin), TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes (Spain), XVIII Bienal Internacional de Arte de Cerveira (Portugal), and the National Museum of Art M. K. Ciurlionis (Lithuania). In 2019, she participated in the International Residency Program at the Centro de Arte La Regenta (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain), and in 2016, she received the Bilbaoarte Foundation Art Project Residence Grant (Spain). Her work has been recognized with awards from the XVI Certamen de Artes Plásticas El Brocense (Spain) and the Call for Exhibition Proposals by the Spanish Embassy in Berlin, among others. She is also a co-founder of the project space Urlaub Projects.

Gallery