Doña Montaña. Public Sculpture.
Bienal de Arte de Medellín y Antioquia. 2025

This sculpture, through its location and scale, not only inhabits the public space but also activates a group of sculptures created previously

in connection with a civil engineering work: the construction of the José María Córdova Airport in Rionegro (1979–1985).

Based on this link between progress and culture—or, in other words, between civil engineering and sculpture—the Túnel de Oriente

(Eastern Tunnel) is proposed as a case study and intervention. Due to its length and complexity, it constitutes a key infrastructure for the

development of Medellín, Rionegro, and the department of Antioquia.

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The use of materials extracted during the excavation, mainly intended for paving, structures, and land fills, gives rise to one of the central

concepts of the sculpture: if progress—or, more precisely, major engineering works—generate sculptures, then the materials resulting from

the Túnel de Oriente project should also produce one. In this case, the stone from the mountain becomes the constitutive material of the piece.

Within this context, a second and definitive concept emerges: the geologists and engineers involved developed a specific relationship with

this territory. The mountain ceased to be an abstract geographical feature and became a singular entity defined by work, time, and experience.

From this relationship arose the phrase "es que esta es una señora montaña" ("this is truly a grand mountain"), which gives the sculpture its

name: Doña Montaña.

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Unlike other infrastructure projects, a tunnel does not add volume to the landscape; its operation consists of excavating space within the

mountain. Paradoxically, its shape references what it crosses: the mountain itself. The engineering work, that is, the tunnel and the mountain,

is abstracted and geometrized. The sculpture is then configured as an echo of this condition: it establishes a direct relationship with the

intervened mountain and pays tribute to both the engineering work and the geography that made it possible.

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The mountains of Antioquia have been a condition for progress; without them, neither engineering nor Antioquian culture would have existed.

This work is dedicated to the civil engineers of Antioquia and, in particular, to my great-grandfather, the engineer Juan de la Cruz Posada.

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PABLO GÓMEZ URIBE. 2026

Medium: Habitable and Public Sculpture

Dimensions: 23 m x 15 m x 7.5 m height

Materials: Sheet iron (ASTM A572 Gr50), primed and coated paint, zinc phosphate epoxy barrier. Aliphatic polyurethane finish RAL 3005.

Gneiss stone, granite slabs. Patula pine trunk, Yarumo tree, weeds, Teak wood.

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Location: José María Córdova Airport Interchange, Rionegro, Antioquia.

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Work Teams

Pablo Gómez Uribe– Leader

Maria Alejandra Duque Patiño – Project Director

Maria Fernanda Duque Garcés – Scale Models and Drawings

Juan José Villegas Arboleda – 3D Visualization

Isabella Duque Garcés – Scale Model

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Maleza – Landscaping Proposal

​Luisa Lara

Isabel Villegas

Maria Camila Henao

Carolina Mejía

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Structural Calculations

Marín Uribe – Structural Engineering

Metallic Structure Construction

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Mincivil

Resident Engineer: Camilo García Vianna

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Civil Works Construction

Concesión Túnel Aburrá Oriente – Odinsa

Lead Engineers: Andrés Villegas and Isabel Gutiérrez

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Photography

Alejandro Arango

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Support / Sponsors

Odinsa

Concesión Túnel de Oriente

Gobernación de Antioquia

Proxyco Gallery

Alexa Halaby