In the cavernous third‑floor gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Delcy Morelos confronts visitors with Ombligo (navel), a monumental, basket‑like form that seems to hover above the floor. At first glance the dark, mesh‑like mass resembles a cocoon, a safety net or an alien vessel, inviting the eye to trace its undulating curvature.

The sculpture is built from an earthy blend of corn roots, tapioca, tobacco and other organic fibres, many sourced from a local micro‑farm and from Yucatán sisal. As the elevator doors open, a potent aroma of cinnamon, cloves, damp earth and faint diesel fills the space, turning the gallery into a scented chamber that overwhelms the usual white‑wall neutrality.

Beyond its materiality, Ombligo re‑examines the modernist grid. By swelling the traditional woven lattice into a bulbous, womb‑like shape, Morelos subverts a historically patriarchal structure, offering a nurturing, maternal counterpoint that references Indigenous cosmologies and the artist’s Emberá heritage.

The work’s scale is arresting: a massive, semi‑transparent nest that seems to suspend the floor itself. Light struggles through its interlaced fibers, revealing fleeting glimmers that make the piece feel both solid and ethereal, as if a planet were poised to descend or a dragon’s nest were awaiting its hatchling.

In its totality, Ombligo (navel) engages sight, smell, touch and imagination, delivering an experience that feels more like stepping into a living organism than viewing a conventional installation. It lingers in the mind long after the scent fades, a reminder of how art can make the body itself a site of contemplation.

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