Contrapeso (Counterweight) is a project conceived specifically for the monastery of Santa María de Bujedo de Juarros (Burgos, Spain), which arises from the need to establish a dialogue with the history and visual force of the building. The title refers to the most literal definition of the word found in the dictionary: “a weight placed opposite another weight, so that it remains balanced,” and it reflects the fundamental intention of the proposal: to suggest a balance of forces, both material and symbolic, between the architectural space and the artistic gesture.

The project is articulated from the relationship between two materials that represent different forms of permanence: the restored stone of the monastery and the book as a carrier of thought. In this context, the meditations of Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk and a central figure in the spiritual and architectural configuration of that monastic order, provide the written word. Volumes I and II of the Complete Works of Saint Bernard are immersed in water; the written word undergoes a transformation process due to the porosity of the material, and as the book becomes soaked, it overcomes the object's buoyancy, sinking and diluting in a process that asks the viewer to take an attitude of contemplation and patience, related to monastic practice.

Thus, the written word ceases to be a fixed form and becomes a process of continuous mutation.