Polvo eres

Project planned for the central hall of the Hospital Santa Rosa. Stop-motion video of the phrase "Polvo eres" [Dust thou art] slowly appearing as it is carved with chisel and mallet on the reception wall of the hall. Each of the blows can be seen appearing on the wall, but the subject performing the action is never visible. It was first projected on a wall of the Hospital Santa Rosa in 2008 and later carved into the wall of the Art Museum of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Subsequently, as time has passed, this gesture has been repeated, taking on other connotations in other spaces. "Polvo eres" as stardust, in the sense that we are made of the same atoms as the stars; "Polvo eres" in the sense that we are not beings as solid as we perceive: everything is in permanent transformation, and we are really clusters of vibrating molecules, perhaps as the Buddha's phrase in his Fire Sermon suggests: “everything is burning.”

For the International Biennial of Antioquia and Medellín, a new version of this work was installed in the COLTABACO Building. A large space was found there, mysteriously carpeted with a layer of 40 to 60 cm of rubble from walls of the building itself, demolished in the past but never removed — resulting in an extraordinary panorama of a building coexisting with its own remains. The installation reminds us at once of the primordial law to which all living beings are bound — from single-celled organisms to the stars — and of the terrible historical juncture we inhabit in 2025. On the other hand, in this version of Polvo eres we find something not present in any of the previous versions: among the rubble, we see small pioneer plants emerging, as if something beneath it, despite everything, insisted on resurging and manifesting itself.