La perversión de lo Clásico: anarquía de los relatos (The perversion of classics: The anarchy of narrations)

La perversión de lo Clásico: anarquía de los relatos (The perversion of classics: The anarchy of narrations)

I am honored to present work in the Cuban Pavilion of the Venice Biennale along with: Rui Chafes, Pedro Costa, Glenda León, María Magdalena Campos-Pons & Neil Leonard, Francesca Leone, H.H. Lim, Liudmila & Nelson, Hermann Nitsch, Sandra Ramos, Lázaro Saavedra, Tonel, Gilberto Zorio, Wang Du.

Project

53+1=54+1=55/ Letter of the Year
A multimedia video sound sculptural installation
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons
Neil Leonard
Museum of Archelogy Piazza de San Marco Venice
Republic of Cuba Pavilion opening: May 31, 2013, 5:00 pm

Campos-Pons’ work is a site- specific installation Project 53+1=54+1=55/ Letter of the Year. Conceived in collaboration with musician and composer Neil Leonard, this multimedia installation consists of the massive structure of birdcages. The work presents a parallel to the grid of architecture and sound, old and new, always in motion, so typical of Cuban cities but also the cities around the world. The birdcages are used as metaphorical vessels to capture dreams. Inside of them there is an accumulation of fact data and fragmented video narratives played on numerous monitors, creating the mixture of sounds and images of urban Cuba, as the country evolves and the basic diversity of discourse changes in a dramatic and even theatrical way on the island, as well as in perceptions of the island from abroad.

For 53+1=54+1=55. Letter of the Year, Leonard utilizes the sound of Cuban street criers to create a sonic map constructed of voices from the island. This antiphonal map is suggestive of innovations carried out in Basilica San Marco, directly across from the Cuban pavilion, where 16th century composers began using site-specific placement of instruments and voice in their musical scores for the first time in Europe. Leonard investigates how in both present day Havana and 16th century Venice, antiphony emerged as a keynote sound that was intertwined with artistic and social transformation.

Previews/Reviews:

http://theculturetrip.com/caribbean/cuba/articles/classic-tales-of-distortion-cuba-at-the-venice-biennale/

http://blog.uprising-art.com/interview-exclusive-maria-magdalena-campos-pons-neil-leonard/?lang=en

http://www.artsobserver.com/2012/06/20/havana-biennial-exhibitions-at-wifredo-lam-center/