THE ARTIST
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M A R I A - V E R O N I C A
Visual Artist
Guayaquil-Paris-Dubai
lanoveaunee@hotmail.com
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Maria Veronica Leon Veintemilla is a multidisciplinary artist born in 1971 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She represented her original country at the 56th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia. It is also thanks to the efforts of this artist that Ecuador introduced for the first time in History its own pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia, a milestone in the history of Ecuador. Maria Veronica Leon, a relevant artist for Ecuadorian Art History and one of today's most dynamic artists from Latin America, developed successfully Ecuador’s official contribution to the 56th International Art Exhibition with the exhibition “Gold Water: Apocalyptic Black Mirrors” supported by the Culture and Heritage Ministry of Ecuador, the Embassy of Ecuador in Rome and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility in Ecuador. In 2016 after the invitation of MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, to exhibit her work, Maria Veronica became the first contemporary woman artist from Ecuador to have a solo show in a museum in Rome; as well in 2017, the first Ecuadorian artist in having a solo show in Doha, Qatar, in Katara.
She lives and works in Dubai since 2014, where she also became the first Latin American artist to have a solo show in U.A.E. and to be represented by a gallery in Dubai, U.A.E. Cube Arts Gallery (2014).
From 1998 to 2013 she lived and worked in Paris, where she became the first contemporary woman artist from Ecuador to exhibit in a Parisian museum: Petit Palais/Museum of Fine Arts of Paris (2008). She was also invited for a solo exhibition at the Galliera Museum, Paris (2006) as well she was selected by the Cultural Affairs Department of Paris for “La Nuit Blanche”(2004).
Maria Veronica has also taken part in a number of other international exhibitions, most importantly: Katara (2017), Doha, Qatar; MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome (2016); Cube Arts Gallery, Dubai DIFC (2014); Metropolitan Museum, Quito (2013); Art Brussels(2012); Chapiteau de Fontvielle, Monte Carlo (2012); Cipriani New York (2011); Espace Beaujon Paris (2011); Plaza Athenee Paris (2011); Spazio Thetis Venice (2010); Guanzhou Art Fair China (2008); the 52nd International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Pavilion of Latin-America-IILA (2007); MAAC: Contemporary Art Museum Guayaquil (2005); Crystal Palace Guayaquil (2004); Theatre de la Ville, Paris (2000), Municipal Museum Guayaquil (2000); Bill Tornade, Paris (2000); Sylvie Rielle Paris (2000); Galerie de Nesle, Paris (1999); La Galeria Quito (1998/1995); Madeleine Hollander Gallery, Guayaquil (1998/1995); La Havana Biennial (1997); Art Forum, Quito (1996); British Council Quito (1995), "Casa de la Cultura" Quito (1995); Quebec International Snow Sculpture Festival (1995); Beijing Latin American Art Festival (1994), between others.
As a multidisciplinary artist Maria Veronica has been working with a variety of techniques: drawing, painting, printmaking, video art, video installation, video-poetry, digital books, performance and photography. From her early years the artist has shown her extraordinary talent also in portraiture and self-portraiture. She made portraits of prominent figures like Bjork, Isabelle Adjani, Pina Bausch, Dominique Mercy, Julie Stanzak, Helena Pikon, Placido Domingo, Bill Clinton, Sheikha Mozzah from Qatar,and diverse Ecuadorian, Latin American, European and now Middle Eastern personalities.
In Ecuador Maria Veronica worked with “La Galeria” in Quito (95/98) and Madeleine Hollaender in Guayaquil (95/98). In 1996 Guayasamin invited her to work with him in “La Capilla del Hombre”, Quito (murals paintings). She attended the School of Fine Arts, Central University in Quito, Painting and Printing specialization, where she was also Dean Assistant of Printing Department. In 2o16 Maria Veronica was elected in Ecuador "Woman of the Year in Arts and Culture". Her avant-garde life and work make of her a leading figure in the international contemporary art scene.
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History
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1991-1996
School of Fine Arts, Central University in Quito, Ecuador, specialization Painting and Printing.
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1994-1996
Dean Assistant of Printing Department at School of Fine Arts, Central University in Quito, Ecuador.
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1996-1997
Maria Veronica works with Guayasamin in "La Capilla del Hombre" (Mural Painting), Quito.
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1997 She worked with “La Galeria” in Quito and Madeleine Hollaender, Guayaquil, Ecuador. jhg'lkdjr'lgdjf'lhjf'tlmh'lgnh'lf/tmnh'ol;gl/mdsf'/l.hnfkldbglkdrng;lh.fthvhfjasgf;dguydfuwydvjhwbdisahpocxjndkjbvjfbjlgmb;,.smx;sm;x.,ms;ldmls ;IJewfrilwehf;olsejhg'lkdjr'lgdjf'lhjf'tlmh'lgnh'lf/tmnh'ol;gl/mdsf'/l.hnfkldbglkdrng;lh.fthvhfjasgf;
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1998-2013
She moved to Paris, where she works as a multidiciplinary artist in different medias:
Art Video, Video Poetry, Multimedia Installation, Drawing, Painting, Portrait, Performance, Photography
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Press Release
- « Dark Blue Visions »
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Extended Press Release _Ecuador Pavilion
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"The Gold Rush"
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Spanish Press
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PDF Catalogue Apocalyptic Black Mirrors
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Biennale Catalogue Page, 56EIA.Vol2P_Ecuador_
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Words Ambassador form Ecuador in Italy
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Kunstforum International
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L'oro Blu dell'Ecuador: Intervista a Maria Veronica Leon Veintemilla, June 2015
L'Or Blu
MV Artworks for The Pavilion of Ecuador in La Biennale di Venezia
Universe in Universes
La Biennale di Venezia/National Participations
"D A R K B L U E V I S I O N S"
by Maria Veronica Leon V
The human right to water is fundamental and indispensable, inalienable, indefeasible and essential for life. Water is a common ultimate good. Its sources and channels that once seemed so limitless are drying up. Historically, no notion of protecting water or bottling it for human consumption existed, but rules change and international water conferences as well as communities worldwide have studied water systems and redefined their rational use.
Ecuador became the first country in the world to codify the Rights of Nature, a pioneer in the global environmental sector. Ecuadorian Constitution recognize the inalienable rights of ecosystems to exist and flourish, giving people the authority to petition on the behalf of ecosystems, and requiring the government to remedy violations of these rights; so that rivers and forests maintain their own right to exist and are not just a property. Under these laws, for example, a citizen can file a lawsuit on behalf of an injured channel, recognizing that the health of the water source is crucial for the common good.
The vibrant protagonist for the exhibition is video art. Overlapping time sequences of water emerge from a distant past catapulting it into an abstract location in the future where the world apocalyptic reality of contamination and obscurity disappear. I choose video as the ideal technique, since its movements allow me to show by series the similar phases of black apocalypses that different cultures live in parallel times. Video takes me to the representation and abstraction of the high-tech industry irruption in the soul of human beings. The sound of machines hammering our psyches are the hammering actions of capitalism excesses, that day to day demands to be prostrated at its feet. Steal barriers, metallic cuts, black holes where Earth loses its identity, steal stains, heavy and deafening structures, obliging men to give up their territory. The totalitarian excesses of the Industry have irrupted nature, damaged its health, and affected the ecosystem. Money is “the saint” and the punisher, the one that creates nature’s darkness, and it causes a duel reflected into the future, in successive mirrors of apocalyptic reflections that will destroy the Humanity.
We need flowing water in order to live, love and have light. "Water of Light, Water of Life." The internal vision needs to be intricate to the external one, so that what is inside is reflected in the outside world. Water is suffering, drying up and dying, being infected by man’s brutality; water begins to exist with “artificial breathing” on an man-made life support system. In the videos the light blue tubes allow oxygen to enter, a treatment to cleanse and reanimate water intravenously. We feel the churning power of the oceans and seas, interconnected in an energetic therapy, building barriers to resist industry’s atrocities; generating a second dimension of existence, where universal cosmic energy gives birth to a centric universal nucleus, from where an explosion of new fountains irrigates old affected waters erupts and a new cosmic galaxy emerge. Waters’ new energy is stronger than industry.Video offers a perfect choreographic interplay between these present and future realities, and generates a singular visual reading that symbolizes new codes of freedom in the face of capitalistic disaster and destruction. Surrealistic and symbolic visions illustrate water, present and future, spring from an imagined sense of a collective elevated consciousness, with greater respect for water and to what it means to Humanity.
The shadow of darkness passes from a futuristic perspective; darkness vanishes, the industrial machine as well, the round table of the Illuminati is devoured by the black holes, only the shadow is left, dark mafias disappeared; the dimension of the dollar gets lost and enters the plane of memory, the metallic stars lose their force and an enlightened human being arises that represents the new collective consciousness that sustains the world in a contemporary awakening. Tomorrow the currency will be water, air, health and survivorship and new codes.
Maria Veronica Leon V
Maria Veronica Leon, Lucia Vallarino and Paolo Baratta, President of La Biennale di Venezia
Se abren las puertas del Primer Pabellon del Ecuador en la Bienal de Venecia
Maria Veronica Leon and Juan Fernando Holguin, Ambassador of Ecuador in Italy
Lucia Vallarino, Maria Veronica Leon and Juan Fernando Holguin Ambassador of Ecuador in Italy
"Para el Ecuador es un orgullo participar primera vez con su propio Pabellón Nacional en la 56° Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della Biennale di Venezia, el evento artístico más importante del mundo.Estamos seguros que este primer Pabellón Nacional del Ecuador está dignamente representado en tres figuras: el oro, el agua y la más importante de todas ellas, la obra artística de María Verónica León.
Solo el espíritu artístico de María Verónica es capaz de encontrar y extraer la belleza a un elemento más alejado del universo estético como lo es una planta embotelladora de agua, a través de las imágenes replicantes y los sonidos metálicos que crean un universo paralelo, el de “Gold Water: Apocalyptic Black Mirrors” / “Oro y Agua: Espejos Negros Apocalípticos”.Asimismo, la artista visual redimensiona uno de los hermosos e importantes recursos naturales del Ecuador, el oro, para otorgarle una interpretación vanguardista que redirige laperspectiva de las culturas precolombinas ecuatorianas sobre este elemento.
Agradezco el esfuerzo de María Verónica León y Lucía Vallarino Peet para la concreción de este importante proyecto de arte contemporáneo nacional. Para el Gobierno de la República del Ecuador la presencia de su propio Pabellón Nacional en la Biennale di Venezia, representa un privilegio que esperamos que se repita en próximas ediciones.
Invitamos a todos a admirar el universo artístico de María Verónica, lleno de fuerza femenina, espíritu innovador y pasión artística".
Juan Fernando Holguín
Embajador del Ecuador en Italia
Mayo de 2015
Kunstforum International
Presenza
Click Catalogue "Gold Water: Apocalyptic Black Mirrors"
“Gold & Water: Metallic Constellations”For the first time in the history of the Venice Biennale, Ecuador opens its own independent pavilion thanks to the initiative of a young multidisciplinary artist, relevant to the Art History of Ecuador, Maria Veronica Leon, currently living in Dubai (Cube Arts Gallery), who has been distinguishing herself in Paris since 1998 for her works (drawing, painting, printing, video art, video poetry, performance, digital books, and digital photography). Gold intensity and water translucency has always been one of her favorite subjects. For the 56th International Art Exhibition, she explores gold and water through a new proposal: “Gold Water: Apocalyptic Black Mirrors”, a true manifesto in favor of life and art. This committed artist deplores the excesses, exaggeration, intoxication and drifts of industry, which penetrates to the very heart of nature (1) and alters ‘water vibration energy’ and the ‘symbolic, historical and cultural significance of gold.’ ‘Water, as governed by regulations that meet the needs of our western industrial civilisations, encompasses the most ancient representations that, still today, bear their influence on our opinions. Water mythology and symbolism engraved in our subconscious contribute to our perception of water’. For the French semeiologist Jules Gritti ‘Our technical and industrial civilisation, owing to its inherent shortages and pollutions, may exacerbate need, anguish and appetite in talking signs.’ Starting from this perspective, the Ecuadorian artist explores the mnemonic traces of our relationship with water and gold. Her project is built around a strong symbol: the fireplace, which is cube-shaped as a leading-edge kitchen, though with a new identity. The relevance of this realistic structure lays in its universality, thus enabling the artist to create an original work that metaphorically evokes humanity in the process of forgetting itself. A wall of a series of micro- waves recessed into rails shows the images of a lost paradise recalling the walls of Plato's Cave. Several videos show the images of a water bottling plant: shuffled rhythms on a metal background give rise to stars that open and transform like new galaxies. Another video shows virtual and incandescent gold in an everlasting fight against water and evokes chaos. Gold as an economic index will turn into a promise of beauty. 1. ‘Ecuador, country of solar forces, is a piece of incomparable nature. Its coasts licked by the Pacific, its flank crossed by the Andes mountain range. The Galapagos Islands inspired ‘The Origin of Species’ by Charles Darwin’. Ileana Cornea, art critic and curator Paris, January 2015
MARIA VERONICA INTERVIEW, VENICE JUNE 2015
Press Release
- « Dark Blue Visions »
- Extended Press Release _ECUADOR PAVILION
- « Gold Metallic Constellations », Introduction Curator Text in English
- « The Gold Rush »
- Spanish Press
- PDF Catalogue Apocalyptic Black Mirrors
- Biennale Catalogue Page, 56EIA.Vol2P_Ecuador_
- Kunstforum International
Click Maria Veronica' Artworks for La Biennale di Venezia
"Maria Veronica The gold rush"Contemporary art is rediscovering gold, this exceptional material, fascinating in its lustre and splendour, which brought glory to Ravenna and was restored to use in art by Gustave Klimt.
In the 21st century, Louise Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor, James Lee Bayars and many other artists boldly revive the tradition of the time of the pharaohs, an imperturbably enduring tradition: “gold is immortality” is the Brahmins’ constant refrain.
“Gold has no part to play in the mythologies of Homo faber.” The historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, spent his lifetime studying this question: “Gold is a creation of Homo Religiosus.” It was the first metal used by man, even though he could not use it to make tools or weapons. “Throughout History and technological innovations, from the use of stone to working bronze, then iron, and finally steel, gold has never played a part.”
Alchemists wanted to turn other metals into gold in order to cure their imperfections. Through this noble material, art touches on the sacred: “The essential symbolic value of gold has never been tainted despite the progressive desacralisation of Nature and human existence.There is red, black and lots of gold in Maria Veronica Léon’s work, the enigmas of her symbolic world exploding from their fiery fusion.Yellows, greens and blue fuse in a variety of shapes, including squares, circles, trapeziums and pentagons; they splutter into triangles and even more elastic geometric shapes. Her line unfurls such an extraordinary tangle, what can you say?
Maria Veronica Leon’s work is disconcerting in its originality.
A willing secessionist, she eludes the golden nets she inherits from the Austrian painter who could easily have been her ancestor, but there are others before him, anonymous pre-Colombian artists from whom she gains this inheritance that binds her to the sun.Her lyricism, freedom and courage make her different; a female artist whose attitude reminiscent of the mythical Penelope weaves her intrigues in the name of civilisation and peace. Like the Homeric woman, she diverts her craft and directs it towards her own vital experience, thus transforming reality into legend and legend into a wonderful dream.
From the portraiture she has practised for years, she is moving towards her phantasmatic memory and from the likeness of the model to the probability of her adventure.
Like Munch, she emphasises the voluptuous language of lines, like Beardsley she loves luxury. Her lines meet, forming her abstract geometric shapes, and this is how she conceives cities, articulating their volumes by organised agglomerations of shapes. Civilisation has a horror of the void, but the black hole is lying in wait for it. If souls petrify in a world of stars, and numbers rule the world, humanity would have to start from zero.
When her palette darkens in a dramatic movement, incandescent colors evokes the Dante-esque movement of the lava, deep, dark blue tries to calm the catastrophe, a draped silhouette stands out like a pyramid, and instead of the face, a star.
Ileana Cornea
- L’oro Blu dell’Ecuador: Intervista a Maria Veronica Leon Veintemilla, June 2015
- Kunstforum International
- Universes in Universe
- La Bienal de Venecia/Participaciones Nacionales
- El Desembarco Latinoamericano en la Bienal de Venecia
- Cultura
- Arte: Gold Water Apocalyptic Black Mirrors
- Catalogue: « Gold Water: Apocalyptic Black Mirrors »
- Se abren las puertas del Primer Pabellon del Ecuador en la Bienal de Venecia
- Embajador del Ecuador inagura exhibition de Maria Veronica Leon V
- Presenza
- Maria Veronica Artworks /Pavilion of Ecuador
- El Universo
- Expreso Ecuador
- Embajada del Ecuador en Italia
- TextezuKunst
- Orsi Italiani
- L’Oro Blu
- La Bienal por Paises
- Il Giornale dell Arte
- Les Curieux des Arts
- Istituto Santa Maria della Pieta
- Biennale di Venezia
- El Comercio
CLICK CATALOGUE "GOLD WATER: APOCALYPTIC BLACK MIRRORS"
Maria Veronica Leon Veintemilla
“Una Forza de la Natura”
Ho conosciuto Maria Veronica nel 2007, durante l’organizzazione del Padiglione “America Latina” alla 52^ Biennale Internazionale d’Arte di Venezia. Di questa giovane e talentuosa artista ecuadoriana, mi colpì subito l’energia unita alla gentilezza, l’allegria contagiosa e la disponibilità ad aiutarci durante i lavori di allestimento di uno spazio prestigioso ma difficile, come quello del Collegio Armeno.Il critico d’arte Marc Debergh, in un suo catalogo, la presentava così: “……ecco la conferma di un nuovo talento che si colloca su basi classiche con intense proiezioni creative. Maria Veronica, una delle grandi artiste del nostro tempo,donna di spirito ultrailluminato che compone un simbolico triangolo lirico ed espressionista tra le visioni europea e amerindia e la nuova arte di amare il mondo per rigenerarlo ed andare oltre……
A distanza di otto anni, Maria Veronica Leon, superando le più ottimistiche aspettative, grazie al suo impegno e al suo lavoro titanico, è stata di nuovo invitata alla Biennale di Venezia a rappresentare il suo amato Ecuador, che è presente a Venezia con un suo Padiglione, per la prima volta, nella storia della Biennale.
Nei grandi spazi del Padiglione dell’Ecuador, Maria Veronica ha allestito la sua opera spettacolare :“Oro y Agua: Espejos Negros Apocalipticos”.
L’intensità dell’Oro e la traslucidità dell’Acqua sono sempre stati soggetti preferiti da Maria Veronica che, in questa edizione della biennale, vengono riproposti in un incredibile e affascinante panorama multimediale. Installazioni audio-visive con disegni, video, foto e oggetti di varia natura: un “Tecno- Teatro” dove acqua e oro,- due delle fonti naturali primarie di ricchezza dell’Ecuador e del mondo- sono estrapolati dal loro contesto originale e riesaminati criticamente attraverso la storia, la società,l’economia e la cultura. L’oro e l’acqua, questi due elementi così preziosi, una volta ritenuti inesauribili, sono ora, grazie all’opera dell’uomo, considerati a rischio . In una realtà quasi “apocalittica” Maria Veronica rappresenta , con immagini e suoni , “l’irruzione dell’industria high-tech nell’animo degli esseri umani. Guardando le sue opere si immaginano realtà presenti e future, con l’umanità che risorge dai disastri creati nei tanti secoli di distruzione della natura. Uno spiraglio di speranza per il nostro futuro.
Maria Veronica Leon è una giovane donna affascinate e colta . Ha viaggiato moltissimo. Ha vissuto molti anni a Parigi e attualmente vive a Dubai. Un’artista che nel suo aspetto racchiude molte caratteristiche del suo paese natale.L’Ecuador infatti è un paese con grandi bellezze naturali, montagne innevate, boschi, fiumi impetuosi, laghi cristallini , mare smeraldino vallate fertili, montagne che non raggiungono altezze esagerate dove i vulcani sono divinità tutelari anche se minacciose.
“Acqua d’Oro: Neri Specchi Apocalittici” è una bella mostra che vi invito a visitare. Il Padiglione dell’Ecuador, come tutta la Biennale di Venezia rimarrà aperto fino al 22 di novembre . Prossimamente, sarò in grado di presentarvi in rete un prezioso video che con il Team di MultiOlistica abbiamo realizzato a Venezia su Maria Veronica e la sua opera.
Alessandra Bonnani
DUBAI MAY-JUNE 2014 CUBE ARTS GALLERY
Drawing and Painting
"Locality & Aesthetics"
Solo Exhibition by Maria Veronica Leon Veintemilla
Cube Arts Gallery, Gate Village 08, DIFC May–June, 2014
NEWS about ''Locality & Aesthetics'' and Maria Veronica:
1."GULF TODAY" NEWS, DUBAI, UAE. DIFFERENT SPACES, SAME HOME BY MUHAMMAD YUSUF, 5 JUNE 2014
2. "EL CORREO DEL GOLFO", JUNIO 2014
3. "EL UNIVERSO, MAY 2014
4. "EL TELEGRAFO", MAY 2014
5. "EXPRESO" 2014
M A R I A V E R O N I C A I S B A S E D I N U N I T E D A R A B E M I R A T E S.
»Identity Cristalization »
M A R I A V E R O N I C A
Guayaquil-Paris-Dubai
María Verónica Leon Veintemilla Visual Artist lanoveaunee@hotmail.com