LIGA 42: Gru.a (Brazil)

Plinth for no thing

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Foto: Arturo Arrieta

LIGA 42: Gru.a (Brazil)

Plinth for no thing

LIGA 42: Gru.a (Brazil)
Plinth for no thing
December, 2025 – March, 2026

Gru.a is an architecture studio based in Rio de Janeiro, founded in 2013 by Caio Calafate and Pedro Varella. Its practice operates at the intersection of architecture and art, exploring how spaces, structures, and material gestures can acquire new readings beyond their function. Their architectural work, art installations, and exhibition designs are assertive assemblages in which the tectonic and the conceptual find a precise balance.

The piece proposed for LIGA’s space, Plinth for No Thing, stems from an investigation into Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro and the Zócalo Square in Mexico City as examples of empty monumentality: a reflection on these singular urban spaces that, lacking a defined purpose or function, become open surfaces for collective action and imagination.

The installation introduces a concealed and imperceptible plinth within LIGA’s space, subverting the idea of the traditional pedestal. This new level incorporates a water surface sustained by a pumping system that produces a soft sound, along with the movement and vibration of water. This gesture, both technical and poetic, presents visitors with the possibility of another landscape—one that is shared and mutable. Monumental empty spaces are reconfigured here at an intimate scale, inviting us to reconsider how the public and the collective are constructed, inhabited, and transformed.

Produced with the support of: Basaltex y Grupo MARQ, Berel, Panel Rey, Helvex, Cuprum Eurovent, Graham Foundation, Laguna, Arturo Arrieta, El Jardinero, Marea.

Photos: Arturo Arrieta