Breath & Delirium: Selected Works By Glenda León
July 16, 2020
“Breath & Delirium: Selected Works by Glenda León” is a free, online exhibition of video works by Havana-born, Madrid-based artist Glenda León.
The words “breath” and “delirium” refer us to the fragility of the body. They are symptoms of a primeval relationship humans hold with the world and with the rhythms of nature. León’s tautologies, as she refers to such poetic gestures, have the simplicity of a haiku in their ability to register intensities — transformations that are simultaneously disruptive and part of a natural process. As we mourn senseless losses and try to imagine a world where caring for those most vulnerable is no longer a cry that goes unheard, these works remind us that the material from which our dreams and desires are made prove as fleeting and brittle as a breath of air.
The artist’s video art combines performance with digitally manipulated photographs to create visual metaphors that explore the relationship between the body, nature and the imagination. The lyricism that characterizes her multidisciplinary practice engages the senses through a subtle and elegant approach to the ironies and contradictions in the apparent and the mundane. León is one of the few female Cuban artists recognized internationally, and her extensive body of work covers a vast range of media. Her video works, some included in this exhibition, are in permanent collections of major art institutions such as the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France, among others.
“Breath & Delirium” is curated by UMD Department of Art History and Archaeology doctoral candidate Patricia Ortega-Miranda. This online exhibition is made possible, in part, by a generous grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. Additional support is provided by the Dorothy and Nicholas Orem Exhibition Fund.