FIXED EXPLOSION
Inspired by the final explosion scene of Michelangelo Antonioni's famous film Zabriskie Point, Léonard Martin's eponymous suite, presented at the Templon gallery's Brussels space, reveals an upside-down universe evoking the constant flow of images in our world under the cloud's sway. Does it make us want to break free?

Scattered across the sky, the multicolored clothes of a wardrobe, the food in a refrigerator, a television, the books in a library… all filmed in slow motion to a psychedelic soundtrack (by Pink Floyd): the iconic final scene of the famous film is a must-see. Zabriskie Point by Michelangelo Antonioni released in 1970 to appreciate the sequel of the same name by Léonard Martin.

A series of oil and acrylic paintings in vibrant colors and devoid of vanishing points – as is necessary to convey the impression of floating… Watching the explosion of objects at Zabriskie Point prompts us to consider the repercussions and the lasting impact that the history of one generation leaves on the next. " explains the artist, born in 1991, a graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris and Le Fresnoy, who, since his residency at the Villa Medici in 2019, has engaged in a dialogue between painting and cinema. What paths can we forge through the abandoned dreams of our elders? " he asks, noting: I capture these objects on the fly. Where the film stops like a point of no return, my paintings imagine possible continuations. »

SATURATION

What sequences can be imagined in this great disorder of signs where automaton-like figures move about (the multimedia artist, who practices painting, sculpture, and video simultaneously, creates puppets and automata intended to stage themes drawn from literature or art history)? Transposing the cloud of levitating objects from Antonioni's film onto the flat surface of the canvas, the Zabriskie Suite inevitably evokes, through the saturation of signs, "cthe constant flow of images, texts and sounds that now occupy our daily lives and sometimes blur our vision For Léonard Martin, in fact, Painting perhaps allows images to fall away, to make this "cloud" rain down.
which weighs above our heads ».

Recalling, through its plunging perspective, the emaki – those illuminated Chinese, Japanese, or Korean scrolls that foreshadowed cinema – his painting “prevents the gaze from becoming fixed.” A fragmented aesthetic that puts our gaze to the test. There is no rest here; we are in the whirlwind of history and memory. Indeed, the artist asks himself: How do you piece together the fragments of a story? Where do you look and listen? My paintings don't provide a definitive answer. They trace lines, from one memory to another, and seek to repopulate this desert over which Antonioni's lovers fly. »

LEONARD MARTIN – ZABRISKIE SUITE »
TEMPLON GALLERY
VEYDTSTRAAT 13A, BRUSSELS (BELGIUM)
UNTIL FEBRUARY 24, 2024
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