Dong women are the artists of the shiny cloth (08, 09). This exceptional fabric is dyed with indigo and medicinal plants, then hand-hammered with a large wooden mallet until it develops a radiant sheen. Depending on the village, artisans may add egg white, rice starch, or animal fat to enhance its gloss.

The installation represents 5 hammers which literally reproduce the light, as they do as tools.

In Chinese metaphysics, everything that exists is constructed from five essential forces: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

These are not materials, but movements. Rhythms that transform the energy of the world:

Wood grows, pushes, shapes what is born.

Fire expands, burns, transforms the interior into light.

Earth collects, balances, sustains what settles.

Metal structures, cuts, purifies.

Water flows, dissolves, keeps the secret of the depths.

In Dong culture, these five elements are guides for living, building, and celebrating.

That is why the installation is composed of five lamps, each dyed with materials linked to the elements.

Light, form, and matter intertwine to honor the way the Dong understand the world: as a living cycle, in constant balance.

Wool is an ancient material in Spain, but also a forgotten waste product.

This warm, living fiber holds memories of the landscape, of grazing, of slow time.

Recovering it is an act of care and rootedness: giving value to what is left over, transforming it into something that illuminates.

In this installation, Spanish wool is intertwined with the material philosophy of South Chinese culture: working with what you have, with what the earth gives.