The earth’s cool breath is the first thing that hits me. Scented with clove and cinnamon, it catches my senses by surprise in the dim, while a vast soil sculpture emerges around me as if from a dream, just as the artist intended. I’m contained within its mammoth, terraced walls of reddish soil and struck by the silence, the peace felt in being held by nothing but earth. Another visitor lies on the ground nearby, contemplating the circular, 12-metre-high structure towering above us. I resist the temptation to stroke it, instead smelling and observing the work, feeling a mixture of curiosity, fear and solace.
I’m in Mexico City, inside The Womb Space, a cavernous earthwork by Delcy Morelos. Now in its ninth and final month, the show has been a word-of-mouth sensation, drawing more than 60,000 visitors. Its draw lies in an often nostalgic appeal to the senses – a woman in her 70s enters and whispers: “It smells like my ranch! Like playing in the dirt as a child.” Remarkably, it turns out the sculpture’s soil was actually sourced from the region the woman is from. Together, we take in the earthwork’s cascading plant matter, its humidity and the uncanny aliveness emanating from within. It’s almost like standing inside a mountain: you feel humbled and somehow more primal, the response more visceral than cerebral.
