For the 2026 edition of Bozar Monumental, Bozar’s central Horta Hall is transformed by Delcy Morelos into a place for organic communion. For this new commission, she has created a trapezoidal structure 14 metres long and 9 metres wide, resembling both a nest and a temple: its form evokes ritual structures such as Mesoamerican pyramids, Ancient Egyptian tombs known as mastabas, or Amazonian maloca houses. The work is built with the intricate, protective complexity of a bird’s nest, made from a framework of hazel panels onto which is layered a mixture of local red clay, spices and scents. Inspired by wattle-and-daub, a technique more than 6,000 years old, Morelos bridges disparate geographies and times to invoke a universal connection to the soil. As in all of her works, the monumental sculpture offers a multisensory, potentially spiritual encounter. The artist describes it as “an altar and a machine for giving affection,” a mountain that holds and embraces all those who enter. By encouraging the visitor to walk barefoot on the packed-soil floor, Morelos facilitates an intimate encounter between the human body and the earth, reawakening ancestral memories often buried under the concrete of modern life.
The project is the result of a two-year conversation with BC Materials, a Brussels-based organisation specialised in transforming bio-regional and urban waste streams into circular building materials. They accompanied Morelos on a collaborative journey of bringing together arts and sciences, exploring Belgium’s rich and diverse soils.
After Michael Beutler in 2025, Morelos is the second artist to investigate the space designed in 1922 by Victor Horta as a Sculpture Hall. It once housed works by Rodin, Bourdelle, and other international sculptors. With the Bozar Monumental series, Bozar invites contemporary artists to re-activate the original purpose of the Hall, and engage with this exceptional Art Deco architecture at the heart of Brussels. Morelos’ installation is conceived in dialogue with Horta: as sunlight streams through the glass roof, the installation’s warm, malleable earth offers a contrast to the unchanging, rigid marble of the hall. Morelos reveals a hidden unity: marble and clay share a common origin in the mountains, reminding us of the deep, geological time that underpins human constructions. Invoking the words of Indigenous philosopher Ailton Krenak, Morelos reminds us that “if humanity has a future, it is ancestral.”
Series conceived by Zoë Gray. Installation curated by Emma Dumartheray.
This edition was co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union within the “Studiotopia 2.0: Enter the Symbiocene with Arts and Science” project (2024–2027).
Exhibition 28 June -30 August 2026. BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Rue Ravensteinstraat 23 - Brussels, 1000 (Belgium). Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm.
Delcy Morelos,Uterus in Uterus, Bozar, 2026. Photo: Romane Iskaria.
