Artist
Isabel León

Isabel León, CHARCO Exchange, 2015. Photo Soufia Bensaïd.

b. 1974, Spain
www.isabelleon.com
www.exchangeliveart.com

Isabel León lives in Granada. She is an artist, independent cultural manager and teacher. She holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Polytechnic University (Valencia), European Erasmus Scholarship in Athens (Greece) and Valencia Polytechnic University Scholarship in La Habana (Cuba), and a Master in Art Production and Research from the Granada University (Spain).

Her work has evolved from photography and video to performance art, a practice that she has been almost exclusively dedicated to since 2007, taking part in numerous performance festivals, events and residences, including Exchange Suomi (Finland, 2014), Exchange España-Norge (Oslo, 2014), Abierto de Acción (Cartagena, 2014, Jaén, 2013, Murcia 2011), Artón (2012/11), PoesiAcción! (Instituto Cervantes de Berlín, 2011), Festival Cabezabajo (Granada, 2011), NauEstruch (Barcelona, 2010), Art d ́acció (Valencia, 2010), Acción!MAD (Madrid, 2011/09), La Muga Caula (Girona, 2008/09), Sinergia (Girona, 2008).

Her passion for performance art pushes her to promote the practice of performance through organizing meetings and events both locally and internationally. She combines her artistic and management activity through teaching, giving workshops in different contexts, such as art centres, universities and independent spaces. Currently she is an active member of Enclave Contemporary Creation in Granada, and she is co-founder of the project EXCHANGE Live Art with artist Ana Matey, a series of residences, laboratories and art meetings, which use action art as a research tool to investigate communication.

Performance
CHARCO Exchange

ARTISTS
Ana Matey (Spain)
Isabel León (Spain)
Serge Olivier Fokoua (Cameroon/Canada)
Soufïa Bensaïd (Tunisia/Canada)

FADO is pleased to be facilitating the LIVE ART EXCHANGE’s Canadian edition: CHARCO EXCHANGE. Presented in partnership with DARE-DARE, Link&Pin, and Rats9 in Montréal; and VideoFag in Toronto, CHARCO EXCHANGE happens between two cities from May 11–30, 2015.

The first phase takes place in Montréal from May 11–23 and will culminate in a public sharing where works in progress/creation will be presented. The duos working together (who have already started the process before meeting in person through email, writing, Skype, etc.) are Sofia and Ana; and Isabel and Olivier. In the last week of the project, the four artists move to Toronto where they continue their research, with a final sharing of the work produced will take place on Saturday, May 30, in an event that will include live specimens, lectures and an exhibition of the process carried out.

LIVE ART EXCHANGE is a process-based research and creation project initiated by Ana Matey and Isabel Leon in 2012, and has realized projects with dozens of artists in Spain, Finland and Norway. An ongoing research project on communication and interpretation of messages between individuals, using performance and action art as the basis for this research, LIVE ART EXCHANGE is interested in collective creation and believes that artistic creation is a live act, without boundaries or limits. The project manifests in a variety of proposals including meetings, residencies, workshops, talks and other outcomes including photography, video, and performance working with artists and creative people from different disciplines, backgrounds and origins. LIVE ART EXCHANGE proposes focusing on the artistic process and the artists themselves, rather than the outcome or production of specific works. In this project, the research around ideas of ​​communication-interpretation and the process of creation itself goes beyond the outcome of the play itself.

DARE-DARE supports research and valorizes emerging practices. Its members are interested in the context of creation and answer the need for exchange and collaboration. DARE-DARE is a flexible, open space devoted to research, experimentation, risk and critical inquiry. The artist-run centre manifests a sustained interest in exploration and in the diversity in the modes of presentation.

LINK&PIN is an international performance art series based in Montréal, Canada. It is organized and curated by Adriana Disman along with a huge amount of support from the local performance art community. It holds a constantly changing mission in an effort to stay relevant. Currently, L&P strives to support artists who are in some way marginalized and engages with thinking through anti-disciplinarity and the politics of arts funding.

RATS9 est un espace positif et inclusif où il est possible, à travers l’art, d’engager une conversation à propos des enjeux féministes, post/dé-coloniaux et queer. Notre mission est d’offrir un support à la création et à la diffusion d’artistes dont le travail aborde les problématiques liées à l’identité sexuelle, ainsi qu’aux pratiques anti-oppressive. Rats9 strives to be a positive and inclusive space where it’s possible, be through art, to engage in conversations about feminism, post-/de-coloniality, and queerness. Our mission is to offer support for the creation and diffusion of artists whose work addresses issues related to sexual identity, as well as anti-oppressive practice.

VIDEOFAG is a storefront cinema and performance lab in Toronto’s Kensington Market, dedicated to the creation and exhibition of video, film, new media, and live art. The space is run by Jordan Tannahil and William Ellis, who converted the space from an old barbershop in October 2012.

Performance Yellow

This fragrance opens us to the question, has the show started? It's winter, the theatre is colder than the street and the room is filled with people and all their winter smells: wet faux leather, down, too much shampoo, and beer breath. The atmosphere is a trickster. Am I late, am I early?

Top Notes

yellow mandarin, mimosa

Middle Notes

honey, chamomile, salt

Base Notes

narcissus, guaiac wood, piss, beer