Leonel Vásquez | Sound Artist | Portfolio

Leonel Vásquez Portfolio

Casa Hoffmann info@casa-hoffmann.com (+57) 312 439 0627 Cra. 2A # 70 - 25 Bogotá. D.C. Colombia Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

1

Bio Leonel Vásquez is a Colombian sound and plastic artist.

Throughout his trajectory he has received multiple recognitions and awards, such as the Creation Scholarship for Intermediate Trajectory Artists, awarded by the Colombian Ministry of Culture (2019), the Plataforma Bogotá - Más Arte Más Acción Residency Grant, awarded by the Bogotá District Institute for the Arts (2018), and the International Circulation Scholarship in two ocations (2017 and 2014), awarded by the Colombian Ministry of Culture, among others. He has carried out numerous solo exhibitions, such as Tierras del mar (Lands of the sea) at the Valparaíso Festival of the Arts (Chile, 2018), The River’s Cradle at the OpenArt Örebro Biennial (Sweeden, 2017), and Canto Rodado (Chanting Boulder) at Casa Hoffmann (Bogotá, 2019), among others. He has been invited to take part of multiple international panels in contexts as the XI Tsonami Sound Art Festival (Chile, 2017), and the Art and Performance: Making Trauma Visible workgroup during the Annual Encounter of the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics (Montreal, 2014), among others. He currently works as sound art professor at the Art Department of the University of The Andes (Bogotá).

Vásquez holds ample recognition as a researcher and cultural producer for projects carried out in collaboration with the National Radio of Colombia, the National Centre for Historical Memory, and the Colombian Ministry of Culture, among others.

His artworkd have been exhibited in institutions as the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá | MAMBO, the Miguel Urrutia Art Museum (Central Bank of Colombia) | MAMU, the National Museum of Colombia, the Modern Art Museum of Medellín | MAMM, the Antioquia Museum, the Centre for Memory, Peace and Reconciliation, the Museum of Water, and the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá, among others.

Throuhgout his artistic practice, Vásquez reflects and explores the powers of sound as a substance that molds sensible experience, as as a vibrational force that transits spaces and is consolidated in sculptures, multimedia pieces, and architectonic sound installations. He explores ways to expand the act of listening as a political, aesthetic, recomposing action, and as a medium to re-build bonds in contexts of social and environmental conflict. Singing as a resistance practice, sound memories in contexts of armed conflict, sound and silence dynamics, sound qualities of waterscales, and sub-aquatic sound are some of his main conceptual interests.

2

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

3

Canto Rodado Sumapaz forms part of the series titled Canto Rodado. This series tells the anamnesis of a river through a field research project carried out in two parallel directions: first, a scientific interest for water dynamics, geological formations-such as depositional and eroded landforms-, and anthropogenic impacts upon the landscape. Second, an artistic inquiry towards the ways of being, behaving, and speaking of water upon the terrain and its materials.

This research has led Vásquez to perform an exploration of creative media such as experimental lutherie to find the voices, times, events, and speed of water and stones, paying attention to the temporality of waterflow and its carving of the riverbed. Using analog amplifying systems with resonant membranes, the artist gives a voice back to the waterscape, finding the passage of time and the chronicles of water within its materialities.

Canto Rodado Sumapaz, 2019 Sound sculpture, analog amplifying system.

85 x 110 x 95 cm Rock gathered from an anthropogenically intervened or dried river or waterscape in Colombia, wooden needle, resonant membranes, brass bugles, resonance box, electric motor.

4

Casa Hoffmann

Canto Rodado video

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

5

Canto Rodado a tres voces, 2019 Sound sculpture, analog amplifying system.

100 x 75 x 75 cm Rocks gathered from an anthropogenically intervened or dried river or waterscape in Colombia, wooden needle, resonant membranes, brass bugles, resonance box, electric motor.

6

Casa Hoffmann

Canto Rodado video

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

7

Canto Rodado Polifónico, 2019 Sound sculpture, analog amplifying system.

120 x 50 x 50 cm Rocks gathered from an anthropogenically intervened or dried river or waterscape in Colombia, wooden needle, resonant membranes, brass bugles, resonance box, electric motor.

8

Casa Hoffmann

Canto Rodado Polifónico video

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

9

Canto Rodado Modular, 2019 Sound sculpture, analog amplifying system.

45 x 45 x 45 cm Rock gathered from an anthropogenically intervened or dried river or waterscape in Colombia, wooden needle, resonant membranes, brass bugles, resonance box, electric motor.

10

Casa Hoffmann

Canto Rodado modular video

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

11

Canto Rodado a una voz, 2019 Sound sculpture, analog amplifying system.

45 x 35 x 50 cm Rock gathered from an anthropogenically intervened or dried river or waterscape in Colombia, wooden needle, resonant membranes, brass bugles, resonance box, hand crank system.

12

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

13

Canto Rodado, Pequeños cataclismos, 2021 Sound sculpture, analog amplifying system.

26 x 14 x 14 cm Rock gathered from an anthropogenically intervened or dried river or waterscape in Colombia, wooden needle, resonant membranes, brass bugles, resonance box, electric motor.

14

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

15

Caja Geofónica, 2018 Sound sculpture, analog amplifying system.

35 x 42 x 25 cm Rock gathered from field research in Colombia, metal resonators, acrilic visor, resonance box, wooden bugle, hand crank system.

16

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

17

Auscultación en aguas cálidas saladas y profundas, 2019 Sound sculpture, underwater listening system.

45 x 35 x 50 cm Wood, ceramics, copper, water, hydrospeaker, archival sound.

18

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

19

Caja de vientos, 2019 Sound sculpture, analog amplifying system.

42 x 42 x 38 cm Organic material gathered from field research in Colombia, resonance box, wooden bugle, hand crank system.

20

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

21

Marea Negra, 2017 Sound, acousmatic and cymatic sculpture.

100 x 100 x 20 cm Wood, water, oil, sound amplifying system, field recordings, sound archive.

Marea Negra video 22

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

23

Instrumentos Vaho, 2017 Sound instruments.

18 x 18 x 180 cm Wood, aluminum membranes, wood membranes, steel resonators, contact microphone.

24

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

25

Auscultar un territorio de alumbramientos was carried out during the artist residency Plataforma Bogotá – Más Arte Más Acción between June and November 2019. It consists of a sound and video installation which reflects upon the sound contamination of the oceans, and its effects on living beings as whales, which every year swim towards the pacific coast of Central America, looking for peaceful places to procreate and give birth to their young.

Vásquez travelled through his hearing across different waterscapes and extensively talked and shared experiences with water-bound communities to develop a subaquatic listening lab, where people were invited to consider underwater sound, and to create basic hydrophones to perform a quiet and reflective listening of water. The installation seeks to draw the experience of underwater sound closer to the human ear by equipping two water-filled wooden canoes built by fishing communities from the Colombian pacific coast with underwater amplifier systems.

Auscultar un territorio de alumbramientos, 2019 Sound and video installation Wooden canoes built by Colombian fishing communities, water, underwater sound amplifier system, video projection.

26

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

27

Tierras del mar is a sound installation that resulted from a research and creation process carried out during the Tsonami Festival 2017 in Chile. It focuses on the reconstruction of the sound memories pertaining to the fishing community of El Membrillo in Valparaíso, in order to think, remember, feel and express the essential and affective relation between people, water, and its diverse living forms.

During the conception and construction of the piece, a cultural exchange process came about, where a wooden boat was collectively built. It was then carried through the city, to be set free once it arrived to the beach; it navigated across the bay, and was finally retrieved to be exhibited at Worm Gallery.

Tierras del Mar, 2017 Mobile sound sculpture and communitary action Marine plywood, stereo amplifier system with wooden speakers, field recordings and interviews.

Tierras del Mar video

28

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

29

In the Andean indigenous worldview, water creates the life of humans. Water is a chant to coo children, to organize society, to calm down, and to sleep. The sound of water reminds us that we come from water, that it is our origin and that it is the giver of our life.

We are water beings, living outside of water.

Cuna de los Ríos was built during the OpenArt Biennal Örebro (Sweeden) in 2017. The construction of this sound architecture piece follows the necessity of creating a place to meet reflectively with water. It functions as a protective resonant membrane allowing in the voice of a sonic force to build a new home, one in which the river, through the voice of water, serenades life.

Cuna de los Ríos, 2017 Sound architecture Wooden architecture, acoustic underwater sound amplifier system, field recordings.

Cuna de los Ríos video

30

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

31

Jagüey is a research project that integrates field recordings, collaborative work with communities from La Guajira (Colombia), and an experimental hydraulics laboratory which studied the sound proprieties of water, and their possibilities when combined with the sound proprieties of air, metal, and clay in order to generate sensory experiences. The sound installation results from the flow of water and its changing rhythms, activated by three interconnected forces: human force (set in motion by water pumps), water cohesion, and the forces of chants from water-bound communities.

This artwork takes its title from the natural “jagüeyes” found in the arid desert of La Guajira: large depressions on the land where water is accumulated by the containing action of clay soils. The Wayúu community has used these natural water reservoirs to keep the precious liquid during the driest months of the year.

Jagüey, 2016 Sound installation Three baked clay water containers, three artisanal glass water containers, three manual water pumps, wooden support structure, galvanized piping, audio amplifier system, two hydrophones, two underwater speakers, four studio monitors, four output channels, 200 watts stereo power unit.

Jagüey video

32

Casa Hoffmann

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

33

CV Recent exhibition * 2022 Todo lo muerto. Todo lo vivo. Umbrales de resistencia.

National Museum of Colombia 46 National Artists Salon “Inaudito Magdalena” Bogotá, Colombia * 2022 Mompox - Inaudito Magdalena El Boga Casa Taller; Colegio Pinillos; Puerto de San Francisco; Bosque de Los Areneros.

46 National Artists Salon “Inaudito Magdalena” Mompox, Colombia * 2022 Río La Verdad (Public installation) Creative Interventions to Socialize the Report and Legacy of the Commission for Truth Buenaventura, Colombia * 2022 Bosque Resonante de Árboles Errantes (Itinerant installation) Creative Interventions to Socialize the Report and Legacy of the Commission for Truth Sucre, Colombia * 2021 Cuerpos por Tierra Sala ARTBO Chapinero | Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá Bogotá, Colombia * 2021 (november 29 - december 19) UNTITLED, Art Miami Beach Casa Hoffmann. Booth A39.

Miami Beach, FL. *2020 Canto Rodado. Museo de Arte de Pereira Pereira, Colombia *2019 Auscultando memorias sonoras en Nuquí Plataforma Bogotá Bogotá, Colombia *2019 Canto Rodado Casa Hoffmann.

Bogotá, Colombia *2018 Un lecho para escuchar con los huesos VOLTAJE | Salon de arte y tecnología Bogotá, Colombia *2018 Sublime y repulsiva,Instalación sonora, semana de la escucha , Parque Explora Medellín, Colombia * 2018 Máquina de Vierntos, Exposición Colectiva.

Tecnotrópico, Arte Cámara, feria internacional de arte ARTBO Bogotá Colombia *2018 Caja geofónica. Exposición Colectiva Strata, MAC

34

Casa Hoffmann

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Panamá Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá *2017 Tierras del Mar. Instalación y proyecto con comunidad de pescadores. Festival de arte Sonoro Tsonami Valparaíso, Chile *2017 Marea Negra. Escultura Sonora, Exposición colectiva Aguas Cálidas poco profundas. Permanente Galeróa, Curaduría Ana María Lozano.

Bogotá, Colombia *2017 Cantos silentes en cuerpos de madera.

Instalación sonora, Evento simbólico de reconocimiento del estado en la masacre (1998) de Santo Domingo Tame, Arauca *2017 Cuna de los Ríos. Arquitectura sonora OpenArt Bienal Orebro. Suecia *2016 Río Móvil. Performance sonoro Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica Bogotá, Colombia *2016 Aguas Blancas. Instalación Sonora, exposición colectiva, “El final de la excepción Humana” Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño Bogotá, Colombia *2016 Jaguey. Instalación sonora. Proyecto de investigación y exposición indiviual.

Museo de arte Moderno de Medellín Medellín, Colombia *2015 Canto de los Yarumos. Proyecto de investigación e intervención sonora en Árboles Centro de memoria, Paz y Reconciliación.

Bogotá, Colombia *2015 Cuerpos de Agua, laboratorio y muestra intervención sonora (canto Subacuático), Programa Obra Viva, Banco de la república sede Barranquilla, Teatro Amira de la Rosa. *2015 Escucha Perifónica. Acción sonora de amplificación con sistema de perifoneo móvil, en el parque San Victorino, en el marco de la Bienal ASAB. Bogotá *2015 Ritmos. Proyección cinematográfica experimental e instalación Sonora 4 canales, Festival de Arte Interdisciplinario Cuerpo Estado.

Escuela taller sede estación de la sabana. *2015 Radio espectros. exposición colectiva, Bogotá. Belleza y Horror. Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá *2015 Hidrofonías. Museo del agua. Exposición individual. Medellín

*2014 Nigamon Tunai. performance multimedial interdisciplinaria y colaborativo.

Centro de las artes y los nuevos medios OBORO, Montreal, Canadá *2014 Estridulitrum Mortis. Instalación sonora, Galería Valenzuela klenner proyecto curatorial de David Vélez y Juan Cortes *2014 Hidrofonías. Instalación sonora y de video, residencia en Contra expediciones y residencia y exposición organizada por el Museo de Antioquia. *2013 Paisajes e imágenes vibrátiles para tocar con los oídos, instalación en espacio específico casa del Bicentenario,Argentina *2013 Ritmos, instalación de imágenes en movimiento y objetos sonoros, exposición SSonosferas de artistas sonoros nacionales e internacionales, Espacio Odeón. Colombia

*2015 Ganador subvención Pequeños Proyectos Culturales de la “Embajada de Alemania en Colombia destinado a proyectos relacionados con el tema “ Cultura de la memoria, experiencias alemans - perspectivas colombianas. *2014 Ganador beca de circulación internacional, con el proyecto intercultural sonoro NIgamos Tunai, Montreal Canadá, apoyó el Minisrterio de Cultura de Colombia. *2013 Ganador Residencias artísticas Colombia Argentina, Ministerio de Cultura *2011 Premio Bienal de arte ASAB Material y Pensamiento Sonoro *2011 Primer Premio IV salón de Egresados ASAB, Convocatoria Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas Facultad de artes, sala de exposiciones, Bogotá, Colombia

*2012 Mimosa púdica.. L.A Galería Cll.77 No. 12 - 03, Bogotá, Colombia.

*2011 Ganador convocatoria parqueaderos proyecto Actos de la Escucha, Banco de la República y Secrearia de Cultura de Bogotá.

*2012 Actos de la escucha, Semana del sonido en Bogotá, Fonoteca Nacional, Sala de Exposiciones ASAB, Bogotá, Colombia

*2010 Mención Meritoria, Proyecto de grado, “Muertes Vivas”, Maestría en artes plásticas y Visuales Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

*2011 Actos de la Escucha, Museo del Banco de la República de Colombia, Sala de Exposiciones el Parqueadero.

*2010 Ganador Laboratorio de investigación creación Cohelo y Combeima investigación y experimentación del territorio sonoro de Tolima, Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia.

*2011 Cuerpos que resistencia del cuerpo, Universite Trois Rivieres “Fait en Colombie” Quebec-Canadá *2011 Actos de la Escucha, Museo del Banco de la República de Colombia, Sala de exposiciones el parqueadero. *2011 Cuerpos que resisten: “El grito”. “El Vuelo”.

Densidades, Exposición de Arte Sonoro. Sala de Exposiciones Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Universidad de los Andes.

30 de Agosto al 19 de Septiembre de 2011. *2011 “Simples cosas”. “Vida inútil”, “Estar Apretao” Sala de Exposiciones ASAB, IV salón de Egresados ASAB, convocatoria Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas Facultad de artes, Bogotá, Colombia

*2007 Primer Premio II salón de Egresados ASAB, convocatoria Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas facultad de artes, sala de exposiciones, Bogotá, Colombia *2006 Premio Distrital convocatoria exposición sala virtual de la Galería Santa Fe, Instituto Distrital de Cultura y Turismo con la obra “ Carrera 47a calle 44 sur” *2005 Grado de Honor Francisco José de Caldas, Universidad Distrital. *2004 Mención Meritoria, proyecto de grado “Arquitectira sonora”, Academia Superior de Artes de Bogotá.

*2011 “El vuelo”. Video instalación sonora, presentada en la exposición apuntes de lo cotidiano. Sala de Expsociones ASAB, Bogotá, Colombia

Education

Awards

*1999-2004 Maestro en artes plásticas y visuales, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas (ASAB).

* 2008-2010 Maestría en artes plásticas y visuales Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

*2017 Ganador beca de circulación internacional, con el proyecto Tierras del Mar, Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia.

Portfolio | Leonel Vásquez

35