Héctor Zamora’s production deals with sociopolitical questions, in many cases paralleled by examples in other Latin American countries. While considering the architectural space, his process is also a reflection on construction – whether urban, structural or sculptural – in order to also shed light on social construction.

Nas Coxas is the outcome of a performance where terra-cotta tiles are molded using traditional craft techniques by two different people, thus underscoring their quality of uniqueness. The work points to two different meanings of the expression “fazer nas coxas” [literally, “done on the thighs”] – one with a sexual meaning and the other related to the quality of work performed by enslaved people – both of which are connected to the colonial period. Environmental thinking, which is based on an understanding of the relationships between everything that surrounds us, is never completely separated from sociopolitical factors, which shape the creation of the spaces we inhabit.

The work criticizes the colonial past through an exercise of contact with a material which is, fundamentally, earth. Clay, which is as raw as it is conductive, reveals the power of the landscape to be reflected in itself, being constructed and being reconstructed, carrying its layers of history through time.