Es war Erde in ihnen is a series of suspended ‘traces’ that, based on a poem by Paul Celan, addresses the images of memory, those that are permanently reinterpreted, that cannot be fixed.
In his poems Celan uses language to reveal images that go beyond the visible, evoking the experience of what has been forcibly retained by violence. Those images that we perceive but that due to their violence cannot be evoked or reconstructed from the visible. The poem alludes to architecture as the symbol of the coercive and evokes the indomitable power of touch and desire between human beings. 
The drawing that is sealed on each of the surfaces comes from a geometric patter found on the base of a serialised plastic box that is commonly used to transport food. This structured pattern has been transferred by presure into the surfaces on view. Each of the pieces is presented in suspension in the space, forming a continuous line that could be infinite. They are located at 30 cm from the ground, enough so that could be observed from above. 
As if immerse in an aerial view, the image of human beings renders imperceptible, all that is left visible is a diluted image, a delirious reproduction of a territory delimited by borders - intervened by geometric hierarchies.

Había tierra en ellos

Había tierra en ellos y
cavaban.

Cavaban y cavaban y pasaba así
el día y pasaba la noche. No alababan a Dios
que, según les dijeron, quería todo esto,
que, según les dijeron, sabía todo esto.

Cavaban y nada más oían;
y no se hicieron sabios ni inventaron un canto
ni imaginaron un lenguaje nuevo.
Cavaban.

Vino una calma y vino una tormenta
y todos los océanos vinieron.
Yo cavo y tú cavas e igual cava el gusano
y aquel remoto canto dice: cavan.

Oh uno, oh nadie, oh ninguno, oh tú:
¿Adónde iba si hacia nada iba?
Oh, tú cavas y yo cavo, yo me cavo hacia ti,
y en el dedo se nos despierta el anillo.

`La rosa de nadie´ 1963, Paul Celan.
Versión de José Ángel Valente.

...

There was Earth

There was earth inside them, and
they dug.

They dug and dug, and so
their day went past, their night. And they did not praise God,
who, so they heard, wanted all this,
who, so they heard, witnessed all this.

They dug and heard nothing more;
they did not grow wise, invented no song,
devised for themselves no sort of language.
They dug.

There came a stillness then, came also storm,
all of the oceans came.
I dig, you dig, and it, the worm, digs too,
and the singing there says: They dig.

O one, O none, O no one, O you:
Where did it go, then, making for nowhere?
O you dig and I dig, and I dig through to you,
and the ring on our finger awakens.

'No One´s Rose´ 1963, Paul Celan.

... 

Es war Erde in ihnen, und
sie gruben.

Sie gruben und gruben, so ging
ihr Tag dahin, ihre Nacht. Und sie lobten nicht Gott,
der, so hörten sie, alles dies wollte,
der, so hörten sie, alles dies wusste.

Sie gruben und hörten nichts mehr;
sie wurden nicht weise, erfanden kein Lied,
erdachten sich keinerlei Sprache.

Sie gruben.

Es kam eine Stille, es kam auch ein Sturm,
es kamen die Meere alle.
Ich grabe, du gräbst, und es gräbt auch der Wurm,
und das Singende dort sagt: Sie graben.

O einer, o keiner, o niemand, o du:
Wohin gings, da's nirgendhin ging?
O du gräbst und ich grab, und ich grab mich dir zu,
und am Finger erwacht uns der Ring.

`Niemandsrose´ 1963, Paul Celan.




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