The initiative, scheduled until 13 September 2020 it can be visited in the temporary space for art - inaugurated last June - in Corso Matteotti 5, in Milan, in the heart of the city.
“My idea of a gallery has never stopped – he underlines Giampaolo Abbondio – and also the centrality of Milan for my work has never failed, so when this project, initially born for Dubai, could not materialize due to the sad events of the pandemic, I thought that my city was the most right place to preview it”.
in the garden uses the narration of images to propose a space suitable for meditation, a story made up of watercolors, drawings, gouaches, mixed techniques, where the public can concentrate on some of the topical themes dealt with by the works: the beauty of the landscape, nature, the fundamental role of water in our ecosystem.
"in the garden it's a project born to envelop a room and create the empathy of an intimate place of meditation – he says Frances Pasini. An unconventional proposal if you think that it was intended for a stand at the Dubai fair. In the place where everything multiplies, thinking of "hortus conclusus" seems eccentric. Instead it is a poetic declaration, founding in his work.
“Science says that man-made 'erasures' – continues the curator – by modifying the natural balance, are a contributing cause of pandemics. The space, for which Campos-Pons has created an intimate dialogue with flowers and trees, being temporary, metaphorically underlines the need to slow down interventions on the environment, make them less definitive, protect it instead of invading it and make it a place of one's intimacy ”.
“When I imagined in the garden - he says María Magdalena Campos-Pons – I thought of a place that invites the viewer to redemption and sin, a zone of negotiation, appeasement and resolution. The work is both monumental and intimate, as it juxtaposes places of initiation and intercultural culture or geographical narratives. In bringing this project to life, I reflected deeply on how time changes and human gestures and behaviors continually create transformations and erasures, standardizing our human experience as a species on this planet”.
The work of María Magdalena Campos-Pons (Matanzas, Cuba, 1959) is mainly defined by the investigation of his identity and especially his Afro-Cuban heritage. The theme of memory plays a vital role in her installations, photographs or drawings, reflecting the feeling of disorientation that the artist experiences as a Cuban expatriate.
Campos-Pons constantly tests the boundaries of artistic practice, never allowing itself to be defined by a single medium. The experience of exile motivates the artist's production through the themes of belonging, assimilation and transculturation. Another major recurring theme within the artist's research is that of feminism, favored by a strong interest in gender roles.
Fundamental is his participation in the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 with the multimedia project "53+1 = 54+1 = 55. Letter of The Year" curated together with Neil Leonard.
Campos-Pons' work is included in several public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Canada, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the MOMA in New York, the of Fine Arts in Boston, the Miami Art Museum, the Fogg Art Museum in Boston and the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, which boasts the recent acquisition of the installation “Bar Matanzas Sound Map” presented by the artist at the last edition of documenta in Athens and Kassel.
Cover image: María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Farrar's garden to 2,24,8 cm, 2019/20, mixed media on archive watercolor paper triptych: 75 x 100 cm each, csy the artist and Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio, photo-credits: Antonio Maniscalco
