Suelo suspendido | Marinés Agurto Hormazábal

The ability of materials to carry within them memories of landscapes, stories of construction and collective actions lies at the heart of Marinés Agurto Hormazábal’s practice. Working at the crossroads of archaeology, architecture and history, she creates site-specific installations that bring to life the symbolic and physical qualities of salvaged or decommissioned materials, thereby revealing the hidden connections between an area of land and collective memory.

During her residency, the artist explored the geological and economic history of the Paris Basin, a vast sedimentary formation made up of layers of rock, gypsum and clay deposited on what was once the seabed and from which clay was extracted. This commercial activity has had a lasting influence on the region’s architecture and daily life, notably through the production of tomettes – handmade hexagonal or square terracotta tiles made from local clay and widely distributed throughout France from the 15^th century onwards. The tile factories around Paris were key production centres, supplying both the city and the surrounding countryside. Despite the changes brought about by industrialisation, tomette tiles have endured thanks to the ingenuity of their design. Their strength stems from their shape and the way they are laid, the tiles forming a structure whose stability depends on the relationship between each element.

Suelo Suspendido [Suspended Ground] addresses this memory and history. The installation comprises reclaimed tomettes through which holes have been drilled allowing them to be joined together using screws, eye bolts and metal hooks. Together, they form a suspended structure in which organic and industrial materials coexist within a woven web of relationships. What once served as a horizontal floor becomes a vertical field of equilibrium, where stability emerges from gravity, tension and interdependence.

Marinés Agurto Hormazábal (Peru) is currently in residence as part of the 2-12 programme.

This installation was made possible thanks to the support of Vestiges de France.