Exhibition: CONEXIÓN

CONEXIÓN is a large scale installation by Dominican artist and architect Lidia León.

CONEXIÓN will occupy the length of the nave, comprising panels constructed from tobacco leaves. Together, the panels form a collage inspired by ancient stained glass windows and create a dynamic space in which visitors can find a connection with nature.

Coexistence is a fundamental theme for LiLeón. Her focus on the wabi-sabi philosophy, which seeks beauty in decay, inspired her to envisage CONEXIÓN as an autumn garden inside the church, with leaves falling to the ground or drifting slowly upwards towards the sky. The movement of the leaves recalls the cycles of being and the connection between earthly and spiritual realms. Their transparency, which reveals their veins, is an invitation to look at collective spaces as a common good, a single living organism to be respected and passed on to future generations.

The tobacco plants, which situate the work in a Caribbean landscape and are a crucial part of the socioeconomic development of the Dominican Republic, are a recurring theme in LiLeón’s imagery: she was born and raised in a family of tobacco farmers.