Parte name: V|s=Vo
Material: Copper
Size: 300 x 250 x 33.6 mm
Year: 2015

Briefly describe the work you do. 

I worked as a researcher at an aircraft military factory. In this place I worked around different metals, analyzing different manufacturing processes, mainly corrosion. During my research, I mixed scientific knowledge, poetry, photography and painting.

http://issuu.com/leonardoblanc/docs/memorias_de_verde_leonardo_blanc.do

Tell us about your background and how that has had an influence on your work and on you as an artist.

Anthropology, physical education and aeronautics technical degree were the disciplines that I studied and that provided the most important ingredients for the development of this work. However, it was the relationships with people that lead my creative processes.

The concept of the artist studio has a broad range of meanings in contemporary practice. Artists may spend much of their time in the actual studio, or they may spend very little time in it. Tell us about your individual studio practice and how it differs from or is the same as traditional notions of “being in the studio.”

In May 2014 I had an accident in my left leg and had to stay at home for one year unfit for work. That is the reason why I consider my study to be an important part on my recovery process and a sanctuary for intellectual elevation. However, I strongly believe anyone can achieve the creative act, anywhere in the universe. Time and space are mental constructions, like art.

Parte name: V|s=Vo
Material: Copper
Size: 300 x 250 x 33.6 mm
Year: 2015

What roles do you find yourself playing that you may not have envisioned yourself in when you first started making art?

Nothing of what has happened to me was planned and therefore I never imagined I’d be where I am. I never imagined concluding my work and the consequences that this may involve. I always focused on processes because the future is very volatile and does not allow me to rest in a certain position or “state of comfort.” There are no horoscopes to determine the creative act and the position I play in art is inadvertently inexplicable and without expectations.

When do you find is the best time to make art? Do you set aside a specific time every day or do you have to work whenever time allows?

My creative acts happen all day long. Indeed, during the dream phase there are very important things happening, especially during the unconscious order. However, the moment I put my experiences and emotions is when I perform physical activities, usually during the morning and the afternoon.

Parte name: V|s=Vo
Material: Copper
Size: 300 x 250 x 33.6 mm
Year: 2015

How has your work changed in the past five years? How is it the same?

In the last five years my work has changed radically. In 2010 I began to study a Masters degree in anthropology, putting my profession in Physical Education on hold for some time. In that same year I traveled around Europe, America, Asia and Africa. During that trip, experiences from abroad and new intellectual interests awakened self-consciousness of the creative act.

How have people such as family, friends, writers, philosophers, other artists or even pop icons had an impact on the work you do?

Through art residency “Casa/studio B´atz´ and use of virtual social networks.

Have you ever been pulled in the direction of a pursuit other than being an artist? What are your other interests? 

I have had many different jobs, in many different areas, such as: lifeguard; factory worker, cinemas, supermarkets, trade; independent researcher; organizer of sporting events; repairing and manufactured bicycles; in a nursing home, arranging cell, gardening, office, etc.

I could say that my interest is to live in peace and time, to develop the existential quest.

About

I was born on June 20th, 1980, in Córdoba, Argentina. I’m an artist that combines various disciplines and life experiences. I finished my secondary studies at ENET Nº 7 of the “Guarnición Aérea Córdoba” (1999), getting a degree as “Technical Aeronautic”.

In the year of 2001 I dropped out of System Engineering (UTN) to enter the Instituto Provincial de Educación Física (IPEF). During the vocational training process, I worked at sport schools in Villa Allende’s town.

In 2005 I created, coordinated and dictated classes at the first Argentina`s Bike trial school. I also organized national and international tournaments, lectures, shows, exhibitions and workshops of Bike trial with the purpose of teaching the assembling, fixing and use of the bike for the development of children and youngsters. At the same time I participated as a teacher and coordinator of the civil association CAYÉ, planning and executing short, medium and long term educational projects at Córdoba’s state schools (2004 – 2007). In 2007 I got my degree as Physical Education Teacher and participated as associated teacher and researcher at the IPEF.

Over the next three years I traveled through the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. I carried on my graduate courses in Spain getting a Bachelor degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences.

Through the experiences lived during the trips, I discovered a new passion: it was the relationships lived with people from different cultures that originated the interest in observing, understanding and intervening different social groups. With the purpose of channeling my new intellectual curiosity, I started a Master degree in Social Anthropology (2010), dictated at the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC). Simultaneously I carried on with the activities as Physical Education teacher and associated teacher at the IPEF.

In late 2011 I performed my first artistic intervention, “art-sport”, together with Demolition/Construction (Independent Contemporary Art). This action (designed and developed as “sport, art an social inclusion”) was intended for the neighbors of “Campo de la Rivera” (Former Illegal Center of Detention, Torturing and Assassination).

By mid-2012 I return to Europe beginning a new stage in conceptual art. At the end of the same year I returned to Argentina and settled in the art residence “Casa/estudio B´atz”. The close link with national and international artists and researchers, allowed me to develop new artistic approaches.

In 2014 I got a Master in Social Anthropology.

To access the material, I recommend reading:

http://issuu.com/leonardoblanc/docs/memorias_de_verde_leonardo_blanc.do

cargocollective.com/LeonardoBlanc/admin/9648706

All images copyright of the artist and used with their permission.