MARIA MAGDALENA CAMPOS-PONS


The work of Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons features the same wealth of influences that can be found in Cuba, her native country: elements of ioruba religiosity that have been inherited from Africa, the ethnic multiplicity that constitutes her people. In her installations and performances, Campos-Pons makes frequent use of autobiographical references such as family portraits, memories of her childhood in the cane crops, and her own Diasporic experience. In 1990, Campos-Pons migrated to the United States, and was thus deprived of physical contact with her own past. Within herself, Campos-Pons carries the history of the Diaspore on “this side” of the Atlantic, evoked in artwork that stimulates different senses. “Campos-Pons incorporates and develops a combination of significant medias, including recorded sounds, written text, video, and lighting effects, in order to maximize the aesthetic and expressive power of her installations”, says curator and researcher Salah Hassan. Here, she presents “Nesting”, “When I’m not here. Estoy alla”, and “Threads of memory”.

Campos-Pons was born in 1959, in Matanzas, Cuba, and lives in Massachusetts, United States. She has studied painting at the Superior Art Institute, in Havana, and at the Massachusetts College of Art, in the US. Campos-Pons has exhibited her work at the Havana, Venice, and Johannesburg Biennales, and took part in the Dak’Art Exhibition – Biennale of Contemporary African Art, 2004.




"Nesting"




“When I am not here. Estoy allá”




“Threads of memory”