Leonardo Ortega

Video-Installation Artist Leonardo Ortega arrived in Australia in 2006 driven by his interest in learning about Aboriginal Australians. This continued from  his line of work that began in Chile in 2000 with video installations about the struggle of Mapuche-Pewenche Indigenous people against a big hydroelectric project. The transnational company ENDESA-Spain, supported by the Chilean Government, built a series of dams in the Pewenche ancestral lands.

Leonardo’s artistic work combines natural and social sciences with art. He has focused on gathering different perspectives among Indigenous peoples about colonisation and modernisation processes, trying to open spaces of reflection about this complex subject. He has developed this type of work in the Chilean Southern Andes, the Amazon Region and the Central Australian Desert Region.

Leonardo has shown his works in Melbourne, Hobart, Santiago (Chile), Tours (France) and Alice Springs, where he lives.  An article about his work has also been published in Artlink Magazine as part of “The South Issue: New Horizons” in 2007, edited by Stephanie Radock.

Leonardo is also a freelance filmmaker with extensive experience in animation, especially stop-motion technique, video editing and video compositing.

Through his own company, Periphery Media, Leonardo works as a facilitator, editor, animator and director in diverse projects within the Aboriginal Media sector, for NGOs and Government organisations, creating messages, developing skills and supporting creative processes in Central Australia.