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Mexican artist duo RojoNegro has installed La asamblea del barro, a permanent outdoor artwork made of 260 hand-painted ceramic tiles, at UC San Diego’s Triton Center. The work draws on Mesoamerican understandings of four cosmic trees and explores cultural memory, Indigenous knowledge and colonial history.
Mexican artist duo RojoNegro has installed La asamblea del barro, a permanent outdoor artwork made of 260 hand-painted ceramic tiles, outside the Triton Center at the University of California, San Diego. The installation draws on Mesoamerican ideas about four cosmic trees and addresses how cultural memory and Indigenous knowledge endure across generations.
The work consists of 260 individually painted ceramic tiles arranged across four tree-like panels. Titled La asamblea del barro (2026), or “The Assembly of Clay,” it was unveiled on the UC San Diego campus. The source report identifies it as a permanent installation, rather than a temporary exhibition.
RojoNegro is the artistic partnership of María Sosa and Noé Martínez, artists originally from Michoacán who are now based in Mexico City. Sosa has Purépecha roots, while Martínez’s family traces its origins to the Huasteca region. The duo is also representing Mexico at the 61st Venice Biennale, according to the report.
The artists said the work incorporates the idea of four cosmic trees that sustain the universe in Mesoamerican thought. Its materials and arrangement connect that concept to relationships among the body, the surrounding environment and natural forces, while the installation’s wider subject is the transmission of knowledge shaped by colonialism.
Indigenous Knowledge in Public View
Installed outdoors on a university campus, the work places a discussion of Mesoamerican history and Indigenous knowledge in a shared public setting, beyond a gallery or classroom. Its permanent status means it will remain part of the campus environment, giving students, staff and visitors an ongoing encounter with the ideas the artists bring forward.
The artists frame the work against the history of colonial efforts to suppress Indigenous ways of knowing. That framing gives the installation relevance beyond its scale or materials: it points to cultural memory as something carried through practices, objects and relationships with the natural world. The report describes this as the artists’ approach; it does not establish how viewers will interpret the piece or measure its effect on campus.
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From Michoacán to the Campus
RojoNegro’s practice draws on the artists’ connections to Indigenous histories and regions of Mexico. The report says the duo uses multidisciplinary work to foreground Indigenous ways of being and to challenge colonial narratives. For La asamblea del barro, they use hand-painted ceramic tiles and a tree-like structure to give material form to themes of cultural continuity and the relationship between human bodies and the environment.
The work’s unveiling comes as Sosa and Martínez represent Mexico at the 61st Venice Biennale. The available source does not provide details about the Biennale project or explain whether it is directly connected to the UC San Diego installation. The campus artwork is identified as a separate, permanent public work created in 2026.
““In ‘La asamblea del barro,’ we include the four cosmic trees that sustain the universe in Mesoamerican thought.””
— RojoNegro, in a statement about the artwork
Details Beyond the Installation
The source report does not give the exact unveiling date, the installation’s dimensions, its production or funding arrangements, or the process used to select it for the campus. It also does not specify how the 260 tiles are distributed across the four panels or whether interpretive signs or public programs will accompany the artwork.
The artists’ statements explain their intended cultural and historical references, but the available information does not establish how visitors or UC San Diego students have responded. Further details about the work’s campus programming and long-term care have not been reported.
The Work’s Ongoing Campus Presence
Because UC San Diego describes the artwork as permanent, it is set to remain outside the Triton Center as part of the campus landscape. The source provides no schedule for future events, artist talks or educational programming connected to it, and no further campus plans were announced in the report.
RojoNegro’s participation in the 61st Venice Biennale is a separate forthcoming point of attention for the duo, but the source does not give its dates or details of their presentation. Any additional information about the campus installation’s public interpretation or related programming remains to be confirmed.
Key Questions
What is La asamblea del barro?
It is a permanent outdoor artwork by RojoNegro at UC San Diego, made from 260 hand-painted ceramic tiles mounted on four tree-like panels.
Where is the installation?
The work is installed outside the Triton Center on the University of California, San Diego campus.
Who are the artists behind RojoNegro?
RojoNegro is the duo of María Sosa and Noé Martínez, artists originally from Michoacán and now based in Mexico City. Sosa has Purépecha roots, and Martínez’s family traces its origins to the Huasteca region.
What ideas does the artwork explore?
The artists say it draws on the Mesoamerican idea of four cosmic trees and considers cultural memory, Indigenous knowledge, colonial history, and relationships among the body, nature and the surrounding environment.
Is the installation connected to the Venice Biennale?
RojoNegro is representing Mexico at the 61st Venice Biennale, according to the report. The source does not say whether the Biennale presentation is directly connected to La asamblea del barro.
Source: hyperallergic.com
