“Each person has a different way of thinking, creating, loving, and that makes life exciting…”
Name
Celeste Leeuwenburg
Profession
Visual Artist
Website
Who are you? What do you do?
I’m Celeste. I’m an artist photographer and have recently starting doing video installations. In my work the body is something very present, in fact, my next project is a documentary project, mixing performance dance, and photographic portraits…
Where are you from?
I lived between Paris and Buenos Aires all my life. Sometimes I would like to add an additional city, so it’s will be not hard to answer the question: do you feel more parisian or porteña?
Your style in 3 words?
Light – mouvement – intimicity
Your weakness? Your strength?
I am a very positive person, and a dreamer, also very stubborn, ambitious, sensitive and extroverted . Those traits can be both weaknesses and strengths, it depends which way you look at it.
What makes you different?
Because everyone is! Each person has a different way of thinking, creating, loving, and that makes life exciting, no?
When did you decide to become an artist ?
I created my first series of images when I was 17, working on the human body of women. I was then interested in the vision that each individual could have of a body, possibly because mine was changing. In often photographing the same body, I came to play with different textures or materials, in front of the lens, which would become the eyes of each person: this body would change shape depending on the viewer. A few months later, I exhibited my work at the Contemporary Art Fair – ArteBa, in Buenos Aires, and that’s where it all started…
What do you find most fascinating about your work?
The very moment I take the photograph, or I film…. First of all I observe the light, then comes the “selective vision”: I wonder where I’ll look, and what I’ll frame. Sometimes I have a lot of things to move around in the space, as if I could compose my images with colors and shapes, and once the “painting” is composed comes my favorite part, playing with the emotions and the body language of the subject I am photographing. This creates a mixture between what I already had in mind and what I have in front of me.
A few words about your favourite creation?
” Ce qui compte, ce n’est pas une oeuvre, c’est la trajectoire de l’esprit durant la totalité de la vie. ” Joan Miró
Someone else’s work that inspired or inspires you…
A few among many; Francesca Woodman, Rikene Dijkstra, Agnes Varda, Pina Bausch, Virginia Woolf…and more recently I got a crush on the performance of “Room With A View” by musician Rone and the collective (La) Horde, presented just before the confinement at Theater du Chatelet in Paris.
Who would you like to work with someday and why?
Recently, I had the opportunity to make a tribute to my mother and her work in the 70s. « From What She Told Me, And How I Feel “ This work consists of a video installation with a kind of choreography that I invented following stories she told me about the 70’s. In this video the clothes, it’s costumes she made at that time, are worn by me, her, her friends, and my friends ……Also I am preparing a future exhibition in Paris, with the artist David Lamelas, a dialogue between our two universes….or maybe we’re going to talk about THE Universe.
A new project coming up or an idea you want to work on?
is a secret
Finish the sentence „More important than my career is…“
to continue to create always, no matter what….
2020: Where are we going?
At the time I’m writing this, I am in my apartment in Paris in quarantine … it is hard to think about where 2020 is going…..I have this feeling that we’re slowing down. The impression that humans take more time to pay attention, observe, and appreciate the simple things of their daily routine. Make less things, but nice things, be kind to one’s neighbors…I hope that when we make it out of this crisis, thanks to science and medicine, that we won’t forget that we’re not invincible, and that we must take care of ourselves and our planet.
When the going gets tough….
I look at something that matters less to me
Your city’s favourite spots?
In Buenos Aires, I love the infinite blue sky, the crowded streets, and the strength of wild urban vegetation where a plant can grow between two tiles. From Paris, the mix of the population, the cultures from so many countries that mix in each metro station. The history of the city, its past, its footprints, it’s so cinematographically aesthetic.
Put on your future vision glasses: What direction is our generation moving in, what will our world look like in 50 years?
The city was completely empty. It was during the day but there was no sun, and I was running down the middle of streets calling the names of my loved ones, but it only spawned echoes in my head… that was my dream last night. Maybe it’s not a good time to answer this.
What would you do if you could change the World?
Me? it’s time for the aliens to arrive, or to nature to take the lead…..
If the universe is everything and it’s expanding, what is it expanding into?
It’s this a tongue-twister ?
Tell us about your future plans…
I have an exhibition at The Art Factory in Buenos Aires this month which has been postponed to the end of May. And I’m preparing another one in Paris for november.…we’ll see.
Last but not least: what is your favourite Song?
I’m a feminist, but I can’t help listening to boleros from Edye Gomez & El Trio de los Panchos. All this dripping love makes me sick and at the same time makes me sing and dance alone in my atelier…
One last statement please: „Wood or stone, gold or art?“
WOOD that burns quickly does not last long, even if you kill two birds with one STONE…
Your # ?
