Wet Feet/Dry Eyes

Afro-Cuban artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons performs Wet Feet/Dry Eyes (Pies Mojados/Ojos Secos), inviting the audience to bring a blue ribbon to the event for participation with the piece.

One of the most important artists to emerge from post-Revolutionary Cuba, Campos-Pons left Cuba for North America in 1990. Her conceptually based works draw on personal and collective memories of displacement and exile.

‘Cubans arriving to the shores of Florida are allowed to enter the country only if they reach dry land; those caught in the water are less fortunate and face deportation. North Africans risk open seas to reach European shores as well, at times only dead bodies arrive. Water – the ocean of the south and north seas – is a wall of hope and desperation.’ – María Magdalena Campos-Pons

This performance follows the symposium ‘Why sculpture? Why here’, organised in partnership with the Henry Moore Institute and Tate Modern.