María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Rito de Iniciación: Baño Sagrado (Initiation Rite/Sacred Bath)
The video work Rito de Iniciación: Baño Sagrado (Initiation Rite: Sacred Bath) holds a central position in artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons’s practice. A lexicon of the artist’s thinking, the video meaningfully reconstructs rituals drawn from her grandmother’s descriptions of African voodoo practices. In the video, Campos-Pons performs as FeFa, a mother figure who discusses stories of memory, displacement, and separation. FeFa stands for “familiares en el estranjero” (Fe) and “family abroad” (Fa). In the video, FeFa ushers in love and a call for reconciliation between the divine and the earthly, between haves and have-nots, and between Cubans on the island and those in exile. The video draws parallels between the body and nature through a visual comparison of hair braiding and preparing for planting. Weaving symbols of maternity and matriarchal society throughout, the video brings materials such as water, soil, plants, skin, and organs into relation as a symbolic means of affirming equality amongst human and non-human entities.
María Magdalena Campos-Pons is one of the most significant artists to emerge from 1980s post-revolutionary Cuba, where she grew up in the barracks of a sugar plantation. Working mostly in photography, video, and performance, her practice is an expression of absence and loss, as well as a celebratory gesture towards a unique and resilient culture. Her work is shaped not only by innovation, but by a deep sense of humanitarianism, arising out of the mythologies, traditions, and symbols shared by communities of the African diaspora. Campos-Pons’s work addresses issues of race, gender, class, and religion, as well personal and collective histories. She is a tireless champion of examining what has meaning for individuals, as well as for communities, cultural institutions, educators, and artists. Campos-Pons is at the forefront of considering the politics around the nonstop recalibration that new technology triggers.
