Summary
- The Barbican unveils Delcy Morelos’s “origo,” a monumental earthwork in the Sculpture Court, on view until July 31, 2026
- The large-scale ovular pavilion uses soil and spices to challenge the estate’s rigid concrete architecture
The Barbican has unveiled a major public artwork by Colombian artist Delcy Morelos, titled “origo.” This marks the first time in a decade that the Court has been activated for its original purpose, integrating art into communal space.
Measuring 24 by 18 meters and rising over three metres high, “origo” is Morelos’ most ambitious outdoor work to date. The artist hand-built an immersive, multi-sensory environment using a tactile blend of clay, soil, hay and plant seed. The earthen body is sown with fragrant spices like cinnamon and cloves, which provide essential antifungal properties for the soil while creating a heady fragrance designed to trigger emotional memories and foster an ethical connection to the land. The work responds directly to the Barbican’s iconic concrete architecture, positioning organic materiality in dialogue with modernist ideals of urban living.
Rooted in ancestral Andean cosmovisions as well as the aesthetics of Minimalism and Abstraction, Morelos’s practice treats the earth as a symbiotic partner endowed with its own agency rather than a resource to be controlled. Born in 1967 in Tierralta – a Colombian region brutally affected by illegal land appropriation and mining conflicts – Morelos originally explored the entanglements of body, territory, and violence through red clay paintings before expanding into colossal, monochromatic earthworks.
Visitors are invited to fully engage with “origo” by roaming its internal, soil-lined tunnels, witnessing its shifting light and resting within its central enclosure to become an active part of the ecosystem. Delcy Morelos’ “origo” is now on view at the Barbican Centre’s Sculpture Court in London until July 31, 2026.
Barbican Centre
Silk St, Barbican, London
EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom
