Leo Gabin

Emmanuelle Indekeu

Where does the name Leo Gabin come from?

Leo Gabin

It’s a mixture of our first names, a kind of anagram. Leo Gabin came out as the most realistic sounding name.

Emmanuelle Indekeu

Why did you create this collective rather than staying in an individual practice and how did it happen?

Leo Gabin

We’ve known each other since the mid-90s, we just hung out as friends, nobody had an individual practice. Later we all studied graphic design and shared an interest in screen printing, so one day we set up our own cheap installation and the ‘shared practice’ started from there on.

Emmanuelle Indekeu

Did one of you keep a personal practice? What is the limit between your individualities and the collective?

Leo Gabin

Within the group there is plenty of space to explore and present our personal input.

Emmanuelle Indekeu

You often draw parallels with the notion of paternity in your collective work but also with your practice using material found on the internet. How do you think the notion of author has evolved today? What are the limits that you do not want to exceed in terms of ownership? When does the paternity of a work go to Leo Gabin?

Leo Gabin

Appropriation has been influential in all types of art forms, now with the abundance of user generated content readily available online, for us it just seemed as a given to make use of this. The fact that we do, automatically raises questions about the boundaries between public and private. Mostly we like to keep the images as close to its original state as possible, so they retain their documentary value. By editing, repetition, combinations, we alter the context, creating a new narrative, making the whole our own.

Emmanuelle Indekeu

Your work often starts with images and videos found on the internet. Do you have favorite themes and, conversely, do you have themes that you do not want to address?

Leo Gabin

There are plenty of themes we don’t want to address, because they don’t interest us to work with, not because we think we are not allowed to. We do find ourselves drawn to self shot amateur footage, mostly by young people, expressing themselves through references and influences of popular culture.

Emmanuelle Indekeu

What is the limit that you set in the use of material found on the internet in relation to the protection of the privacy of people staged in those images?

Leo Gabin

No limit. We follow our own sense of judgment regarding how far we can take it.

Emmanuelle Indekeu

Your work is about the internet, the limits of privacy, consumerism and a certain American way of life, is there a message or a political dimension to your work? What is the border not to cross for you, if there is one?

Leo Gabin

There are no borders, as long as it feels relevant to us we don’t constrict ourselves. We make use of contemporary and in a way ‘‘hyper real’’ social shared content, in direct relation to society and culture, so this in itself can be seen as a statement, all other is open to interpretation.

Emmanuelle Indekeu

In your eyes, what is the place of the artist in society? Do you consider yourself engaged artists?

Leo Gabin

We just do what we do and it’s nice that there are people that like it and value our work. It started with an urge to just freely make things, the act of creating together, the fun element in doing so. We want to keep this as the motive. In the end, we try not to think too much about any position or whatever, it kills inspiration and creativity.

Emmanuelle Indekeu

Your work is particularly marked by American culture, what is your approach to this one as Belgian, European artists? Have you ever lived in the United States at some point in your life? Do you think it takes some experience to tackle a topic or that a certain distance is needed to keep a critical eye?

Leo Gabin

We grew up with American culture through TV, movies, and music. This created a fascination, it’s so familiar, but exotic at the same time. We lived and worked in the States for about six months in 2011. It was a great experience, but we still prefer to be based in Belgium, maybe partly to keep a distance. In the end it doesn’t really matter, as we are interested in viewing and exploring a kind of reality presented online. 

It’s not that we make work about America, we do find ourselves automatically drawn to imagery made there or relating to the culture. Because of the internet its influence became even more global. A bedroom of a girl in Sweden or Vietnam can look almost identical to the one of Ashley in Ohio, they all could be doing a review of the same lipgloss. 

Emmanuelle Indekeu

What motivated your change of work process to produce your own images with the production of your movie ‘‘No panic Baby’’, 2018? Do you think you have completed a cycle or questioning on the material found on the internet?

Leo Gabin

We guess we’ll always keep drawing inspiration from online content, but shooting our own footage was something which felt right at that time. No Panic Baby is made partially from found and original recordings. A next film might solely contain its own material, but for all we know it could again be exclusively found, or only a soundtrack, maybe a soap only viewable on IG stories, ... there is no limiting ourselves to the way we work.

Emmanuelle Indekeu

Do you have a new project you are working on and that you want to share?

Leo Gabin

At the moment we are working on a new publication relating to our ‘Real Estate’ project. It will be released this summer together with an edition (sculpture) we made in collaboration with artlead.net. In June we’ll present an installation at the Biënnale van België and in September there will be an exhibition of new work at The Journal Gallery in NYC.