Photographer Lea Colombo waltzes with colors and bodies at 3537

An exhibition beyond the codes of photography

It is a forest of photos, contained in small Plexiglas frames and suspended from the ceiling by cords, which currently awaits the visitor to 3537, in the heart of the Marais. Bathed on both sides by the natural light that escapes from the large windows of this former mansion, the images of faces and bodies of women in lively and captivating tones – fuchsia pink, midnight blue, emerald green… – catch the eye immediately. By crossing this visual cloud, the visitor discovers, from one side of each work to the other, two almost identical back-to-back images, which differ thanks to the addition of colored filters, patterns, and slight shifts in their bonding. Like this original installation, its author, the photographer Lea Colombo, announces it from the start: this personal exhibition will not be only an exhibition of photography, thwarting the expectations of those who are already familiar with his remarkable projects for the fashion world. On the series of portraits that appear on these images, the faces of sangoma, healers from South Africa, appear in an almost mystical way. However, this series by the 29-year-old artist, who also grew up in this great African country, is far from an anthropological approach. By working as much on film and digital shooting as on her post-production processing and exhibition devices, above all she allows sensoriality to triumph and infuses her installation with an almost magical aura. Beyond the visual, it is complemented by a sound creation diffused in space, mixing celestial voices and traditional songs with the ringing of bells to plunge visitors to the exhibition into a meditative moment. The artist explains it herself: presented until November 3, this spiritual and multisensory encounter with color and bodies aims above all to connect in a way “deeper to the works, to the energies and to oneself”.

An ode to the power of female bodies

A few steps away, the body of a naked woman with a raised fist stands out against a sky with bloody reflections. This self-portrait by Lea Colombo emerges as the culmination of a form of sanctuary, composed of seven transparent and light fabrics floating in contrast with the raw space of the building. Present again on an emerald green veil, then, a few steps further on, on an immaculate fabric, the body of the artist occupies a central place here. However, this of his practice is still very recent: “Two years ago, if someone had asked me if one day I would photograph myself, I would have laughed saying that it was unthinkable!”, says the artist. In this sacred space exalting feminine power, the artist reproduces and declines her own silhouette support after support, until making it a true icon. As a teenager, the photographer grew up fascinated by the polished images of fashion magazines, conveying a certain feminine ideal, today she uses her practice to emancipate herself from the norms that enclose bodies and explicitly refutes their eroticization in her work. Having since passed through Paris, New York and London before returning to her native country in 2019, the artist has developed over the years a photography where the strangeness flirts with the magical which has also seduced magazines such as Item number — Lea Colombo notably produced a series of portraits of the famous artist Damien Hirst in 2021 – that labels such as Givenchy Where Clothes, seduced by its universe where strangeness flirts with magic. At 3537, his self-portraits blend with intimate portraits of female shamans, in close-ups and in saturated colors, magnified like contemporary divinities. Completed by two of his sculptures in red and orange jade, sacred stones with a smooth and shiny appearance whose rounded shapes can evoke feminine curves, this temple erected by the artist takes a new look at the representation of women in the art, reified and standardized for centuries by the male gaze.

A spiritual relationship to creation

In the center of the last room of the “A Downward Evolution” exhibition, a monumental parallelepiped sculpture forms a kind of totem. On each of its four faces, the same white female silhouette stands out against a strikingly colored background, sometimes in gradations from red to orange, sometimes from yellow to green or even from purple to pink. These four self-portraits by Lea Colombo are cut into seven horizontal parts which, by rotating on the central vertical axis of the volume, break down and recompose the artist’s body as desired, like a Rubik’s Cube. These fragmented silhouettes in saturated colors, which we find in their entirety in the prints hung on the surrounding walls, we discern zigzag shapes, triangles and other circles, symbols added by hand by the artist which translate the pictorial dimension of his practice, transforming the shot after its printing by affixing frantic traces on the image. Strongly inspired by Buddhist philosophy, in particular the theorization of the body in seven chakras, the artist materialized by the seven parts of the sculpture that we find in this last room the tones associated with them – red for the root , green for the heart – offering them an assumed therapeutic dimension: the artist will say herself about the color it contains “multiple healing possibilities”. More recently at Lea Colombo, this approach has been extended to the making of stone sculptures, which she sees as a primary return to creation. Because, let’s not forget, the stone is also a carrier of energy – evidenced by this rose quartz amulet suspended from the ceiling by a metal chain. On their way, the spectator is invited to meditate in front of these sculptures with the air of “talismans”, even to touch them and to make them turn, indulging in turn in a mystical experience. Like the author of these works, a true shaman of image and color.

Lea Colombo, “A Downward Evolution”, until November 3, 2022 at 3537, Paris 4e.