Delcy Morelos Speaks Through Soil

Cinnamon, cloves, cocoa, tobacco: you’ll smell Delcy Morelos’s works before you see them. For more than three decades, the Colombian artist has scented the soil in her large-scale installations to engage with our relationship to the earth. The significance of this gesture is made explicit in ‘De Profundis’, her current exhibition at Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC) in Seville, a river city central to the development of international trade routes and colonies between the 15th and 17th centuries.

Arranged across four rooms of the deconsecrated monastery that now houses CAAC, the sole and titular installation, Profundis (2024), comprises locally harvested sediments – red soil from Huelva; clay and albero sand from north of the city – mixed with other natural materials, such as hay, jute, wood, latex, spices, seeds and plants. By blending local earths with specimens that Christopher Columbus introduced to Europe from the Americas, Morelos alludes to the history of colonial botany.

The artist has covered the chapel of the monastery, once a resting place for Columbus’s remains, with a mound of earth that references this funerary history. In spring, when the exhibition first opened, the soil was dotted with green shoots of tomatoes, chilis and corn. By autumn, however, the vegetation had died back; the earth was brown and flecked with dried stalks – a gesture towards circularity. Originally from the Americas and now ubiquitous in European kitchens, these produce were part of what Alfred W. Crosby, in his eponymous book, referred to as The Columbian Exchange (1972): the vast transfer of plants, animals, diseases and customs between Europe, Africa and the Americas that transformed the continents’ respective ecosystems and societies. By embedding these once-foreign plants into local earth, Morelos stresses the contested nature of land, challenging notions of purity and belonging often associated with territorial nationhood.

Profundis continues in the nave, where Morelos has installed an earthen structure that mirrors the church architecture on a smaller scale, with a path inviting visitors to walk through. The setting draws attention to the historical context of Columbus’s ventures as he sought not just gold and spices but new converts to Christianity. The Spanish Crown believed his mission was sanctioned by divine grace. Yet, in Morelos’s installation, the earth itself is framed as sacred, with the altar concealed beneath fabric caked with albero sand that spills onto the floor. Prized in Seville’s bullfighting arena for its ability to absorb blood, the sand hints at the violence of the colonial project.

In the courtyard, Morelos blocks a doorway with soil, leaving only a small, low opening. Viewers must crouch to peer into this impassable gap. The earthy scent of the soil blends with the sweet aromas of cinnamon, cloves, cocoa and tobacco – plants introduced to Europe as luxury commodities. Their commerce led to the establishment in colonies of large-scale plantations, often tilled by enslaved labour. The installation resembles a pair of partially drawn curtains, alluding to our tendency to view nature as a backdrop to the drama of human activity rather than as a dynamic ecosystem that we shape and are shaped by.  

Profundis ends in the refectory, where monks once gathered for meals. In this place of consumption, the atmosphere turns more desolate. Devoid of vegetation, the dark soil covering the floor is marked by charred logs arranged in a line or stacked in a square, like remnants of a fire, or ruins being excavated. Morelos offers no easy conclusions regarding the legacy of colonial botany. It is unclear what, if anything, will grow from this soil.

Delcy Morelos’s ‘Profundis’ is on view at Centro Andaluz de Artez Contemporaneo, Seville, until 9 March 

_{Main image: Delcy Morelos, Profundis, 2024, installation view. Courtesy: Centro Andaluz de Artez Contemporaneo, Seville; photograph: Pepe Morón}