On May 20th at 6:30 PM, the exhibition by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons will open at the Federico Luger Gallery (WIZARD GALLERY)
The exhibition will feature the studies and drawings that gave rise to the project "53+1=54+1=55 Letter of the Year," realized in collaboration with Neil Leonard, and which will be presented in the Cuban Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale.
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons' work is primarily defined by her exploration of her identity, particularly her Afro-Cuban heritage. The theme of memory plays a vital role in her installations, photographs, and drawings, reflecting the sense of displacement she experiences as a Cuban expatriate. In this sense, "53+1=54+1=55 Letter of the Year" is a large-scale installation encompassing video, sound, and bird cages, emphasizing the importance of multidisciplinarity in her work.
The work directly references the theme of the Biennale, "The Encyclopedic Museum," and takes advantage of its location in front of the Basilica of San Marco to evoke musicians like Giovanni Gabrieli, among the first to write antiphonal scores in the 16th century. These scores required musicians to be positioned in different locations within the Basilica to create site-specific polyphony. Campos-Pons and Leonard have created a similar counterpoint with the voices of street vendors recorded in the streets of Cuba. The work also explores the ongoing tension between permanence and migration, which the artists convey through recorded stories and the cages. Although the cage functions as a clear metaphor for confinement, this work attempts to convey the idea that those trapped are not only those inside the cage but also those who had to leave their home country, like Campos-Pons herself. The gallery exhibition will include preparatory drawings for this impressive installation: standalone works that perfectly reflect the artist's combination of poetry and socially and politically engaged art. Campos-Pons continually tests the boundaries of artistic practice, never allowing herself to be defined by any particular medium. The experience of exile motivates the artist's production through themes of belonging, assimilation, and transculturation.
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons (Matanzas 1959) holds an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Arts and currently teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA. Since 1984, Campos-Pons has exhibited her work internationally in galleries, museums, and institutions such as the Johannesburg Biennial (1997), Dak'Art Biennial in Dakar, Senegal (2004), Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial in Japan (2002), Guangzhou Triennial in China (2008), and the Venice Biennale in 2001 and 2013. In 2006, she had a retrospective exhibition, "Everything is Separated by Water: Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons," at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and at the Bass Museum in Miami. Her work is part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Polaroid Collection (Boston), Fog Museum of Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo), National Museum of Fine Arts (Havana), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), and the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art.
Image: Abdelkader Benchamma, Untitled (2013), ink on paper. Courtesy of Federico Luger
Opening on Monday, May 20th at 6:30 PM
WIZARD / Federico Luger via Circo, 1 20123 Milan Monday - Friday, 3 PM - 7 PM,
Saturday by appointment
Free admission
