María Magdalena Campos-Pons

Initially, María Magdalena Campos-Pons started reading about the history of AlUla to familiarize herself with the social and horticultural topography, from afar. However, arriving here was a different story. This is a place where she feels full of mystical energy; it is a profound, spiritual place. This is a cathedral of the air. Imole Red in the North Canyon of Desert X AlUla 2026 is a gesture to reconnect with nature, an invitation to have a conversation with the colors and textures surrounding us. This canyon is a garden. The contours of the rock change chromatically in the sun, from yellow, ochre, red, to purple and blue. She is trying to synthesize color, light and energy into a blossoming, alchemical garden.

'Imole' references the word in Yoruba language that means light. The sunset here is extraordinary. She works within what she calls the color code of the Yoruba pantheon, and has focused on yellow and gold, the hues associated with sunset reflecting on the water. These are associated with Oshun, deity of the river that bears her name, symbolic of spiritual vitality and life's flow. Placing the sculpture in a flood plain honors the valley's past, a place where our human scale demands humility.

She makes work about her heritage but always attuned to the interrelation of other bodies in specific geographies. How do we each respond to being in a new place? Can she insert a new provocation, rooted in radical love, in a context with its own particular lineage. Radical Love is about human proximity, finding what brings us together in a shared destiny on this planet.

One answer to these questions is a performance offering. As part of her collaboration as one half of KaMag (with musician and composer Kamaal Malak), they will consider how these elements can converge: the magnitude, the elegance, the mystery transformed into sound and improvised choreography. It is astonishing how simple movements, words uttered with love for all, can speak to the extraordinary complexity that exists here in AlUla.

From setting foot in this landscape, every corner reminds her of the work of her fellow Cuban artist, the late Ana Mendieta. She believes this place is an incredible, beautiful gift from nature back to us. She can only make parallel notations in response.