As part of the series of exhibitions inaugurated by the Miami International Fine Arts (MIFA), the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas produced and curated the exhibition Mud, Fire, and the Alchemy of Faith by renowned Cuban artist Milena Martínez Pedrosa. With an extensive career spanning drawing, painting, and performance, Milena has redirected her creative focus toward ceramic arts and installation. In recent years, she has crafted striking three-dimensional works through the multiplication of a series of recurring motifs, which she assembles into self-conceived altars. These compositions reflect on individuality, the spaces she inhabits—and those that inhabit her—among numerous material and spiritual circumstances. One could assert that, through her three-dimensional figuration, her work delves into the boundaries and transgressions of freedom itself.
In her personal statement, Milena considers her work an essential part of her personal journey—a journey rooted in the physical realities of the island and, most notably, the insularity of Cuba. Inevitably, the condition of being an emigrant lies at the foundation of her work. This is not unique to her; it resonates with anyone creating outside of familiar or seemingly hospitable surroundings. Yet, this transient state of emigration is experienced differently by those who bear it: some manage to unburden themselves, while others cling to it.
What appears to be a recurring element, however, is the intent of any work to conjure reality. Although Milena asserts that her themes "span from social, communal, and political issues to the most intimate and existential," I perceive her art as profoundly introspective.
Her installations possess an ancestral quality that renders them almost totemic. From its inception, art has sought to alter the environment, to make it accessible and productive. Later, it evolved into an alternative language, one that compensates for the inadequacy of written or spoken symbols in capturing subjective, emotional, and multisensory experiences. Deep emotions are inherently subjective and strictly personal. They defy description through conventional language. They are felt, and bearing witness to them often requires metaphorical languages, which, ironically, can prove even more elusive than standard ones.
The inclusion of fragments of the human body and other living beings in her work, along with the way she arranges them around a puzzling gravitational center, reveals her fascination with the interplay between spirit and a pragmatic context. A spirit that is restless, uncontainable. Perhaps this is why her pieces never confine themselves—they propose, evade, expose themselves to the other, and possess a remarkable communicative vocation. I often see them as religious installations, as altars offered to unknown deities, as sanctuaries where divine energy resides, or as ritualistic circles hosting participatory ceremonies.
These are refuges, structures for healing, hideaways for solitary meditation. These monuments, composed of living elements taken from their physical surroundings, possess an ephemeral nature, but only because permanence would contradict their healing essence. There can be no healthy environment where paralysis reigns. Thus, these compositions are extraordinarily dynamic: they radiate from a center that does not need to be geometric. Their energy emanates equally in all directions. The core of each piece seems to shift, as does the entire nucleus of the exhibition. The collection of works moves through us like a flock of sparrows. Its essence lies in motion, of course.
Milena states regarding this exhibition, as a concise statement:
'Continuing with my spiritual journey, the title captures the transformation where the materia prima—mud, composed of earth and water—undergoes a dramatic, violent conflict involving fire.
The mud breaks down, hardens, and becomes something stronger. But more than just a physical change, it gains a spiritual quality and becomes a piece of art with meaning beyond the material.
This show is about that transformation, but it’s also about us—our own journeys through life our connection to the physical world,
and how we, too, by strengthening our faith
prepare for our own transformation to the next step beyond.
This is understanding what we are made of, that we are more than materiality and also embracing transformation no matter how painful. Basically believing in the process.'
