With organic shapes and a saturated color palette, the works Leo Orta, a young French designer, bridges the visual boundaries of art and design. It is from this technical and conceptual specificity, which oscillates between art and design, that Orta’s work emerges in a panorama Collectible design. Its unique piece literal approach aim to explore Social issuesfrom sculpture to installations, through painting and performance. Collater.al decided to interview Leo Orta to find out more about his work during an exclusive interview. Below, we will get to know the French designer better and in particular some curiosities about his recent solo exhibition.Daydream“, which opened in Beijing at the Room 6×8 exhibition last June.
Leo Orta is a designer of Anglo-Argentinian descent, who lives in France and works in Seine-and-Marne. “I’m a curator, visual artist and designer, I studied in the Netherlands at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, and now I’m back in France where I live and workhe tells us.
With OrtaMiklos — the creative duo I was a part of — you used to call your creative process “ignorant design,” forcing your work to be unaware of current trends, such as themes, colors, or material values. What did all this lead to?
former duo OrtaMiklos Born from the idea of challenging the boundaries between art and design. We used the concept of guerrilla marketing or guerrilla performance to complement the design week or exhibition systems. One of the ideas we had about things was an idea Breaking down the boundaries between the nobles and the poor and the material surrounding them. We were looking for all the things that could end up in landfills, That they could end up against our property and against what we wanted and Transform it in such a way that it can be completely corrupt. In this way we have introduced these materials into an internal environment, or rather, into spaces that allow discussion and theory about certain things. We thought ourselves ignorant, leaving aside learning, but keeping our knowledge in order to gather all our knowledge and be able to build things that were not affected by our surroundings. We didn’t follow the idea of trends, we liked to experiment, make and produce, without asking too many questions at first. Only later did we begin to think about all this.
What direction did your research take after the OrtaMiklos solution in 2021? Are you still following the same line?
When OrtaMiklos disbanded, it was essential for us to be able to separate ourselves a bit from our aesthetics. On the other hand, it doesn’t have to be easy to do. It’s been years of research, so it’s something that takes time and evolves as new research is done. And For me it was very important in this new research to position ourselves individually, and to delve deeper into theory and concepts through these new works.. This is what will determine in me a new aesthetic and new languages that will emerge. On the other hand, there will always be a part of the OrtaMiklos aesthetic in my work. This means we have been a couple for 6 years and those 6 years will be reflected in the next 10 years maybe or the next 5 years. They scratched me, in other words, it is impossible to do without all this. On the contrary, it must be embraced.
We noticed that your pieces were in conversation with dancer Lee Wook during a performance. Why did you choose to link design with artistic performance?
The collaborative work with Leo Walk began with the residency we created with the collective “la total”, in the summer of 2019. Leo Walk with Marche Bleue was invited to come and create spontaneous shows to share the spirit of the Moulin de Sainte Marie, and its community, and from this contact were born the ideas for the collaborations and performances that later took place between Leo and me. One of the great things that drew me towards this collaboration was the inspiration I drew from the movement that John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg and Merce Cunningham said They created spontaneous performances of their own choreography and musical pieces. I wanted to pursue this idea in the same way that Maurice Béjart did with the sculptor Marta Pan. I saw in these collaborative works a real tool and a real way of self-expression. This is why I wanted to continue Leo Walk and why we will continue to experiment with future projects. hopefully!
Congratulations on your recent exhibition in Asia, specifically China. It’s not the first time you’ve shown your work in Asia, how has your research been received by this audience that undoubtedly has a different visual culture than the Western one?
The “Day Dream” exhibition that opened in Beijing at Room 6 by 8 gallery is for me A complete idea that combines conceptual interest, theoretical interest, as well as “surrealism” I can bring it into my work and this idea is what I think people like in Asia, especially in China. It’s an idea that follows both the radical Italian design movement and the Dutch conceptual movement, and this idea for a new generation that maybe fits their interests And this day, thanks to social networks, it travels a lot and can be of interest to those people who are on networks other than We Chat. For me, there are a large number of people in China who are interested in this movement, whether it be design or art, who have studied a lot, have traveled a lot abroad to the best schools in the United States, England or even the Netherlands, who are now back in China and are able to share this sensitivity. For me, the sensitivity is always the same, and the work that I do travels very quickly internationally, whether it be in the US, Europe or Asia, and it is precisely that that allows that sensitivity to permeate the work.
Courtesy Leo Orta