Delcy Morelos’ work has captured the imagination of the art world, and this show looks to continue an incredible run. As featured in Trebuchet 14: Ecology, Morelos reconfirms traditional understanding of soil as a core vector of the human experience. While it’s a poor pun to describe her work as ‘layered,’ there is something in her work that brings a deep sense of meditation and cosmological placement. Visiting her installations brings people to a sense of being where all senses are engaged to appreciate the, ahem, depth of her work. Notably, Morelos accentuates the smell of earth and a sense of flavour (warning: don’t eat soil) to trigger reminiscences of childhood, conjuring the unmediated joy of the earth as well as more complex memories and inferences. When did the earth become property? When did the world become land?
Press release: Delcy Morelos Madre
The first solo exhibition in Germany by Delcy Morelos presents a new, large-scale installation at Hamburger Bahnhof that explores themes of earth, Indigenous knowledge, regeneration, and the interconnectedness of nature and humanity. The work, “Madre”, which directly engages with the form, light, climate, sound, and atmosphere of the exhibition space, dialogues with the actions, sculptures, and environments of Joseph Beuys, which are on view concurrently in the permanent collection. For Hamburger Bahnhof, Colombian artist Morelos creates a fragrant, fertile, and immersive work that illustrates humanity’s estrangement from the earth that sustains it.
Delcy Morelos is renowned for her sensorially rich, immersive sculptures and installations made from materials such as soil, clay, grass, cinnamon, and cloves. Over the past three decades, Morelos (born 1967 in Tierralta, Colombia) has worked across drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation. Based in Bogotá, her artistic practice engages with the colonial legacy and the cosmologies of the Americas. She describes her art as a weaving together of materials, elements, and knowledge. Since her first earthwork “Eva” in 2012, she has been in an ongoing dialogue with the earth, a conversation she invites the public to join. In 2022, her sculpture “Earthly Paradise” was showcased at the Venice Biennale. In 2024, her works were featured at venues such as Dia Chelsea in New York, the Museo Moderno in Buenos Aires, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, and the CAAC Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Seville.
Following Naama Tsabar and Andrea Pichl, this is the third contemporary art installation by a woman artist to be shown in parallel with the collection presentation of Joseph Beuys in the Kleihueshalle at Hamburger Bahnhof.
Morelos’ installation provides a counter position to the actions, sculptures and environments of the Joseph Beuys works that constitute one of four permanent collection displays at Hamburger Bahnhof.
Delcy Morelos
Madre
11 jul 2025 to 25 Jan 2026
Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart
Germany
Delcy Morelos, Madre, 2025 (Installation view Berlin), earth, clay, water, wood, metal, jute, hay, straw, cinnamon, cloves, buckwheat, chia seeds, tobacco, honey, dimensions variable. Exhibition view Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, 11.7.2025 – 25.1.2026 © Delcy Morelos, 2025. Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery. Photo: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Jacopo La Forgia
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
