Maria Paris Borda

Composición de Lugar is an installation of concrete tiles, an aluminium pallet, and a DHL form/poem.

Each tile was made in Bogotá, Colombia using the artisanal technique of hydraulic tiles once imported by Spaniards.  Each tile features a section of the word suspendida ("suspended") and two parentheses in the center. When assembled, the tiles either complete the word or fragment it, forming a concrete poem and a lyrical landscape.

The title of the work is borrowed from the poetry collection Composición de Lugar by Uruguayan poet Amanda Berenguer, whose work explores the intersections of language, space, and perception. In this piece, language itself is shaped as a material. Just like the process of making hydraulic tiles—where a mold is filled with a mixture of marble dust and pressed—the silence within the letters of the word suspendida is forged in an iron mold and then filled using the same technique. In this way, language, once fluid and liquid, is solidified and fills the void.

The tiles were later shipped from Colombia to the Netherlands and were held in customs for over a month.

Composición de Lugar articulates a narrative of physical and linguistic migration, where language and space coexist in a dynamic flow. This relocation transforms a local technique into a migratory narrative, creating a dialogue between the local and the global, the fixed and the mobile. This piece reflects on territory and language as fragmented and portable elements.