Brazil is León second home; there are a lot of León’s works in Brazil, there is an enormous production: a lot of museums have his works, which he donated or sold in the 80’s mainly…
It is a very important moment to reconsider his work here, to really feel Brazil’s relationship with León and León in Brazil.
Because we then begin to make connections with Brazil and things begin to appear: people, stories, works...
León came to the Aster to see if he could learn to print lithographs with photographic shades. I accepted, enchanted and very curious, that extraordinary student artist,
who from that moment on became a friend.
I had the joy of sharing part of my professional life with León Ferrari, or rather, I had the enormous privilege of being a witness of his genius,
of his youth and of accompanying him on several occasions until the end of his life.
It was very good to be with León. We were very close friends also because of the many poetic and political affinities we had... especially politics in relation to art,
the art scene and how to operate within the art scene.
I simply wanted to share with you that one of the discussions with León was exactly what his political work was, obviously... there were very explicit works,
but how political and apolitical was a work in view of its opacity or its visual evidence, how much it says, how much it needs to say, how much it is protected by minimal strategies of humour or mystery.
The theme of Love, the theme of Eros, and the importance of the characteristic of sensuality, of physicality, of playfulness that appears in the documents, in the instruments:
all this is a dimension of extreme importance for us to understand that it is not a conceptual artist only, but that it is an artist who claims a vital energy.
"The hell of the living is not something that will be; it exists and is already here. It is the hell we live in every day and that we form together. There are two ways not to suffer.
The first is easy for most people: to accept hell and become part of it to the point of not realizing it. The second is risky and requires continuous attention and learning:
to seek out and recognize who and what, in the midst of hell, is not hell, and preserve it, and open space". I think it's something Lisette does with León's work in Nara’s gallery.
Working about León is something that fills us not only with happiness, but also courage. I think there are moments when we are working and it seems to lack us ground and courage.
And León is this person, this theme, this subject, that gives us this energy to face what comes forward.
