For over a century, the Venice Biennale has been one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world. Since its founding in 1895, it has been in the avant-garde, promoting new artistic trends and organizing international events in contemporary arts from dance, art and film, to architecture, music and theater. The 55th International Art Exhibition will take place June 1–November, 24 2013 featuring artists from over 80 countries, among them SMFA faculty Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons who will represent her native country, Cuba.

Featuring 13 artists and collaborations, the Cuban Pavilion for the 55th Biennale, "La Perversión de lo clásico: Anarquía de los relatos/The Perversion of Classics: The Anarchy of Narrations," will be curated by Jorge Fernández Torres and Giacomo Zaza. The Pavilion's location—the National Archeological Museum located in Venice's Piazza San Marco—serves as a platform for conversations and reflections about the roles of contemporary art and relationships between reality and fiction, language and power, art and time.

Campos-Pons, in collaboration with her musician, composer and husband Neil Leonard, has created a multimedia project, 53+1=54+1=55/Letter of the Year, which revolves around a metaphorical structure of bird cages, used by both emperors and common men to capture beauty and to dream of freedom. Installation art, performative photography and cultural activism define the core of Campos-Pons' practice of the last two decades. Covering a range of visual language investigations, her work in the early 1980s focused on painting and the discussion of sexuality in the crossroads of Cuban mixed cultural heritage leading to incisive questioning, critique and insertion of the black body in the contemporary narratives of the present. A cross-collaboration with Leonard, which began in 1988, has complemented and enriched the scope of her work.

Congratulations Magda! Read more about her experience on SMFA's blog.