My first book, “From cloud to paper. 136 minivideoperformances. Three years online“, has already been published and I am very excited about it.
Limited and numbered bilingual publication (Spanish – English) of 200 copies. 336 pages that include the three series of mivivideoperformances (one per year) that Isabel León has made between 2016 and 2018, which were conceived to be shared on the Internet.
The book includes texts by Bartolomé Ferrando, Shannon Cochrane, Nieves Correa, Antonio Gómez, and Pancho López. It is organized by series, which shows a frame and the link to the Vimeo page (QR code) of each of the 136 videos that make them up. Also, the publication includes a USB device with all the videos organized in three files (one per series) in high quality and specially edited for this publication.
Project supported by the Plastic Artists Grant of the Junta de Extremadura (Spain), 2019.
TEXT I WROTE FOR THE BOOK:
From Cloud to Paper.
This book is the realization of a project that has changed the way I relate to artistic creation and, therefore, to myself. It’s a book I feel is like a gift, a reward for a personal bet on my relationship to art; it’s about the celebration of a decision I took towards the end of 2015. That bet – that decision – meant big changes in my daily life that I can no longer (and don’t want to) cast aside. A different perspective opened up before me that let me evolve and focus the creative process on aspects as diverse and rewarding as fun, enjoyment, intuition, play, absurdity, detachment, commitment, and persistence. But these changes weren’t limited to artistic creation; rather, inevitably, they transcended and went further, impregnating my way of being and creating.
From Cloud to Paper is my way of honoring and valuing the effort over the last three years. Thanks to the book you hold in your hands, this work has reached a new dimension, being conceived as a whole, and responding to the concept of series. This set of series is composed of a multitude of small pieces, with perseverance being the glue holding them together. And these pieces are, more than anything else, short videoperformances created under a number of very specific principles, and which I understand as extendible to everything that surrounds me: the importance of the apparently insignificant or trivial, intuition, the use of minimal resources, the immediate and the everyday (in this case, “my” everyday life, which is not the same for everybody).
This project has also meant an exercise of detachment regarding the idea of artistic self-demand since it starts from precarious assertions in terms of technical issues and a creative approach close to the idea of the sketch. In this way, the experience of sharing some pieces of which I was not completely pleased, being aware of their technical failures or conceptual simplicity, has been very interesting. However, this is precisely one of the aspects that, in my opinion, give value to the series and, on a personal level, it has taught me to relativize and to more readily accept my way of doing and being.
Also, I realize that with my work I seek to propose, suggest, or evoke. It is an art that doesn’t direct or instruct, and which appeals to the personal emotions, circumstances, and interpretations of those who get close to it. I’m interested in art that surprises, that can be enjoyed without having to be understood and, at the same time, invites a deeper reflection if that’s the desire of the viewer. With my work, I want to amuse or disconcert, to stir up or shake, but never invade, insult, trouble or disturb. Above all, I want to share the same state of enjoyment I feel when I’m creating.
From Cloud to Paper is, first and foremost, a celebration.
Isabel León, 2019
See a video of the publication HERE.