The Softening of the Concrete

The Softening of the Concrete is a series made in different architectural spaces, such as walls or exhibition panels of any size. It must be placed somewhere that has a front and a back and can be walked around on both sides, because the proposal itself requires it.

By approaching a space with rigid, inflexible characteristics, the aim is to achieve a plastic result through simulation. This consists of drilling small holes, of specific depth and diameter, into the chosen surface, and then threading a wire of specific colour and thickness through them, gradually building up a particular weave.

This weave has a double sense, a right side and a reverse, just like needle-and-thread work on fabric. By transferring an act like sewing — purely two-dimensional, soft and delicate — onto a solid, almost invulnerable structure, the work not only gains another dimension but also fulfils its main purpose: to simulate “the softening of the concrete”.

“The Softening of the Concrete” is a series of spatial installations I have been making in physical and architectural spaces in different cities, such as Bogotá, New York and Buenos Aires — cities where I have lived and which I have had the chance to walk through and make my own. My idea is to take hold of a space because of its seemingly rigid, inflexible qualities, aiming at a plastic result through the simulation of a seam.