The exhibition AMBI PLAYGROUND features a new installation by Bogotá, Colombia-based interdisciplinary artist and professor Camilo Leyva Espinel.
The prefix ambi can be traced to its Proto-Indo-European roots: mbhi could mean “around,” and it is probably derived from ant-bhi, which might mean “both sides.” Doubt is ingrained in etymology, which is captivating and fortunate in this instance. The paradoxical aspect of ambi’s meaning is what called for its use in the title of the exhibition. It creates a third space, a spiraling cycle, an open site for possible outcomes and mistakes. This playground will exist in the exhibition space as a process, an adventure, and as a moment for reflection and participation.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Camilo Leyva is an interdisciplinary artist and professor that lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia. Leyva makes participatory installations and sculptures that focus on how memory and stories stay latent within matter and context, how those memories can be articulated into or revealed through a material statement and its subsequent interaction with the public. Through his work he has investigated processes of communication and collective construction of meaning. Leyva has addressed questions of power, games, manipulation, corruption, façades, and lure strategies; also taking into consideration the tension between our digital and concrete realms. Leyva received an MFA at Parsons the New School for Design and an MA in Art History form Andes University in Colombia. He has shown his work in solo and group exhibitions in New York and Bogotá. Leyva is part of the Agoraphobia collective.