Sotnes of Memory (2026)
"If The Mountain Doesn't Go to Mohamed, Mohamed Must Go To The Mountain"
-Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
In this exhibition, Leandro Marcelino interprets a colloquial Spanish proverb, "If the mountain doesn't go to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain" to contemplate the importance of actively pursuing one's desires and goals.
For him, this saying suggests that if what one longs for is not readily accessible, one must find a way to reach it.
The artist connects this idea to his own upbringing, using it as an invitation to explore how landscapes, both remembered and imagined, can evoke feelings of home and fulfill emotional needs.
The pieces in this show are shaped by childhood memories, textures, and colors from his birthplace in the Canary Islands. They express a yearning to reconstruct these landscapes as a way to process absence, distance, and the subtle ache of dislocation.
Suiseki is the Japanese art of appreciating naturally occurring or shaped stones that resemble landscapes, objects, or scenes from nature. Traditionally, a meditative and poetic practice, suiseki invites viewers to see mountains, rivers, or distant horizons within the smallest of stones.
In a multicultural gesture, Leandro reinterprets this ancient art form through a contemporary lens, embedding his sense of identity and belonging by using this medium to recreate the Canary Islands essence within a Vietnamese context. In doing so, he brings together multiple geographies and cultural threads, using local materials and global symbols to reflect the emotional topography of home.
Over time, the original saying has become so embedded in cultural memory that people often recite it backwards, suggesting that the mountain must come to Mohammed.
This inversion feels apt, Leandro, unable to return to the mountain of his childhood, has chosen to bring it to him instead. In the room's stillness, each stone becomes a vessel of memory.
Where there is a will, there is a way. This exhibition is ultimately about longing, absence, and the quiet, persistent ways we forge connection.
Stones of Memory (2026)
Private Viewing @HeyCamelCeramics