Campo San Samuele, 3231

Rejecting the white cube as the norm, Zoe Leonard transforms the exhibition space into a series of gigantic camera obscuras. This optical device was the first to make it possible to reproduce a sharply focused image using a darkened chamber. In a room plunged into darkness, light entering through a small aperture projects an inverted image of the outside landscape onto one of the walls of this monumental installation.

This work-protocol is part of the American artist’s ongoing reflection on the nature of the photographic medium and the sensory perception of images. Beyond paying homage to the precursor of the photographic process, Leonard’s monumental use of the camera obscura and the immersive experience it creates serve to question the porous boundaries between the image as representation, the image as reproduction, and the image as reality.

Zoe Leonard’s camera obscura was notably presented in 2012–2013 as part of the exhibition « Paroles des Images » at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, where it projected an inverted view of the Campo San Samuele facing the building.