POLITICAL BODIES
Jana Leo
1994-1999
Madrid
In the tradition of body art, political bodies are a series of early works that use the body to talk about current crisis, such as the manipulation of information the AIDS crisis (Fatal Stigma) or to discuss social conflicts, such as the assumptions of nice and happiness associated with female gender in the media representations.
AIDS Fatal Stigmas
Madrid 1994
Analogical Photography, Medium format Black & White print 20×30 (inches)
Showed FNAC Madrid (Callao) 1995
The image that in the eighties was offered of a person with AIDS ( male, skinny) only increases the number of people with aids (for instance heterosexual women never photographed as suffering AIDS as if there was no threat for them when in fact there were) and don´t follow reality. The face is not the mirror of the soul, specially when the portrait is made for publicity purposes.
For further information look at the chapter “Estigmas fatales: el sida, de la mirada médica a la fotografía” page 158, in book El Viaje sin Distancia.
Collect a Body
Madrid 1996
Analogical Photography, 35mm
Two sizes: 28 x 38 cm 10.9 x 14.8 inches 1/5 and 9×13 cm 4×6 inches 1/50
Collection of 25 photographs result of dividing the body (artist´s body) into 25 parts and asking 25 people (photographers, artists, curators, art critics) to take a picture of the part of their selection in their own fashion. Includes a printed browser containing the photograh number cero used to sell the collection plus the veintefour pictures.
Showed at Buades, 1996 Madrid
These series is the first of a performance done for the camera in solitude, having the camera as the only witness and in charge of telling the story. The fact that what is shown are the photographs (not a live performance) and that there is no reference or a context for the images post a question of the role of photography in documenting reality. This series also post a question whether all photography is fictional in the sense that is a performance. In the same lines of performance done for the camera “Naturalization Self-test”(2013), Retratos (1996) and La Herida (1995).
PERSONAL BODIES
Personal Bodies, privacy displayed in public settings, in general and in different series under this name are about the affirmation of my own life by keeping traces through photography.
A
1996-1999
120 x 180 cm 47.4 x 70 inches
1/3
Analogical Photograpy
Mounted over aluminum with back frame.
Showed at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid 1999
at Espacio 1. Curator: Rafael Doctor Roncero
A Espacio Uno Museo Reina Sofia.pdf
A. An everyday life that is epic at every moment without much happening. The appropriation of the other through photography, the affirmation of self for being the mirror. A. is the first letter of the alphabet, the initial of his name; a as in animal and live; a for anxiety and anger; a….
(There are 3 books A.1, A2., and A3. that contains stories and photographs of this collection but unfortunately the texts are not translated to English and there are only two copies, one in the Museum Reina Sofia Collection and the other in my own.
Ositos (Teddy Bears)
Ositos, having a double life, reliving through the imaginary life of my teddy bears; hard moments in bright colors, the bears living my life, acting cute, having a double existence in total sweetness. The teddy bears, the talisman for comfort.
Cartas de Amor ( Love Letters)
Madrid 1994
50x70cm 19.7×27 inches 1/3
Analogical Photography, 35mm, Blanco y Negro
Showed at Imagenes Jovenes ’94, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Madrid, The Storey Inst. Art Gallery, Lancaster and Circuitos, Centro de recursos culturales, Gallery Avd. America, Madrid
Blindly taking pictures, visions of the body
Madrid 1994
50x70cm 19.7×27 inches
Analogical Photography, 35mm
A composition of as many photographs (2 inches) as were taken in a role of film, following the sequences as if it was a contact sheet.
Published en El Paseante1996
In the collection of the museum Es Baluard Museum Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Showed at Modena per la Fotografia 1997
Jana Leo 