
Dania González
Humus, Ciudad Generosa, 4ta Pragmática Project, 11th Havana Biennial, 2012Installation

Humus as part of Ciudad Generosa (Generous City, 4th Pragmática’s project for the 11th Havana Biennial) is an interactive passable sculpture shaped like an earthworm, which functions as a nursery garden, containing plants, earthworms, fish, bees, fungus, honey, earthworm humus, etc. Metal and net for sheltering orchards, glass containers and bottles, wood boxes, live elements, rocks, etc. Humus has approximately 18 x 3 x 6 m.
Humus originates as a sort of rapport between me, the circle of life and Nature process in general, searching for self-awareness as a live entity participating in the system that constitutes the Universe.
I always have been interested in earthworm organism because of its noble function within that circle. Here this purifying, generating and fertilizing element is used metaphorically as a means of personal purification and revitalization, physically experienced by people along the journey within the piece, as would earth while being processed by the earthworm. The term “humus” not only stands for enriched soil; it is also etymologically involved with the term “human,” which myth alludes to the fact that man came up from earth. To me, in this piece, earth is nothing but a symbol of man himself and his natural and spiritual essence.
–Dania González