12/10/2026
Congratulations to Julia Aurora Guzmán on winning the BHD Prize for her work 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯 (2026), which is now part of the Centro León collection and awards the Dominican-Spanish artist a residency at the Walter & Nicole Leblanc Foundation in Brussels.
The Higüero (Crescentia cujete) is a native tree of the Americas and has long been a fundamental material in both daily and ceremonial life. In this landscape-installation, Julia turns the higüero in an archetypal vessel of the center, associated with the womb, origin, and possibility.
Each vessel contains native matter from the Dominican Republic and is rooted with copper, a conductor of energetic fields. The four elements are arranged along a line within a logarithmic spiral, beginning with water, the origin of life, and ascending toward air, detached from the material realm. While navigating around it, we are unable to see what the higher gourds in the center contain, echoing our inability to predict the future.
The work unfolds through 19 metaphorical horizons, thresholds, and invitations to move between the known and the unknown, between presence and becoming. Each element marks a step in a natural transformation, ascending toward completion and transcendence.