Paula Cortazar - El Sonar de las Semillas

Mexican artist Paula Cortazar (Monterrey, 1991) creates a lyrical conversation between stone, landscape, and life. This series was conceived and created in La Huasteca, a vast natural park in Monterrey where Cortazar lives and works.

The sculptures are inspired by the natural elements that surround her, seeds, tree trunks, cactus, flowers, and the river, entities she regards as living presences, companions that shape her daily experience and connect her deeply to the land she inhabits.

At the core of this series lies Monterrey black marble, a material with both geological and emotional weight. Rather than sourcing new stone, Cortazar worked with discarded fragments and rubble, leftover pieces carefully preserved over the years. This choice reflects her deep awareness of her surroundings and a sensitivity to the materials at hand. By giving new life to what might otherwise be overlooked, she maintains a thoughtful dialogue with the landscape and honours its quiet permanence. Each fragment becomes a gesture of attention, an act of acknowledging what already exists.

For Cortazar, every piece of marble carries equal value, regardless of its size or perfection. Her approach reveals a profound respect for the material and for the place it comes from. “These stones are made of the same matter as the mountains that surround this city,” she explains. “They took millions of years to form, and that’s why I feel a responsibility to care for them and give dignity to every fragment.”

On a broader level, El sonar de las semillas reflects our relationship with the world around us — a reminder that care and respect must extend to all living beings. By working with what already exists, Cortazar embodies a sense of attentive coexistence, creating through observation, reflection, and restraint.

The exhibition’s title evokes both movement and sound, suggesting a quiet vitality emerging from stillness. Through these sculptures, Cortazar seeks to find motion within rigidity, the pulse within stone. Her works seem to breathe softly, as if the seeds within the marble were awakening, resonating with the natural rhythms of their surroundings.

Ultimately, El sonar de las semillas is a meditation on care, renewal, and connectedness. By transforming remnants of marble into living forms, Paula Cortazar safeguards not only fragments of the landscape but also the essence of its presence, reminding us that creation begins with awareness with learning to truly see and listen to the world around us.

// Project supported by the 2025 Financiarte Program grant //