Maria Paris Borda

The installation series Figs I and Figs II explores translation through casting, repetition, and error. Departing from the breva: a fruit eaten in Colombia but often discarded in Europe as unripe, the work draws parallels between linguistic displacement and material replication. A fig was cast multiple times in plaster until the mold broke. The process insists on resemblance while never achieving exactitude: there is always a distance between the object and its cast, between word and meaning. Each iteration also alters the space where the figs are shown.

In Figs I, the windows in the space are intervened by blue gel filters that turn the light into a blue hue and highlight light changes throughout the day, while in Figs II, the casted figs are placed on a found material, a golden insulation underfloor. They are situated exactly under a skylight, so the light is reflected on the surface, and gold is reflected on the figs. Depending on the light’s behaviour, the figs acquire different meanings.