The ephemeral installation entitled ‘The Light in the Darkness’, created by Viruta Lab, honors the community response that emerged after catastrophic flooding devastated 68 municipalities across Valencia on October 29, 2024. This art piece speaks to the community’s collective ability to illuminate even the darkest moments, presenting itself as both a poetic reflection and a material response. Human-scale sculptural totems, a photographic work, artificial lighting, and candles come together to form an architecture of memory-keeping.
Valencia-based studio Viruta Lab unveils their monumental installation ‘The Light in the Darkness’ for Tile of Spain at INTERNI’s CRE-Action exhibition in Milan.
This poignant work honors the remarkable community response that emerged after catastrophic flooding devastated 68 municipalities across Valencia on October 29, 2024.
“…and the water swept everything away. I can no longer hear anything, nor see; light has vanished across the entire town. I only feel the fury of water erasing everything it touches, folding cars like paper, dragging anything in its path downstream. Even cries for help have fallen silent… Darkness has become our uninvited guest from this night forward.”
Valencia’s architecture and design studio Viruta Lab, founded by David Puerta and María Daroz, has created ‘The Light in the Darkness’, an ephemeral installation exploring humanity’s capacity to illuminate the darkest moments.
Commissioned by Tile of Spain for INTERNI magazine’s CRE-Action exhibition during Milan Design Week, this centerpiece occupies a prominent position in the University of Milan’s cloister, offering both poetic reflection and material response to the catastrophe that struck Valencia last October.
That fateful afternoon, devastating floods plunged over 60 towns into darkness.
Yet from this devastation emerged a spontaneous collective light: volunteers, companies, institutions, and ordinary citizens mobilized without prompting in an instinctive human gesture of community.
This enduring light, which persists even when everything else goes dark, is what Viruta Lab has materialized in their installation.
Architecture as memory keeper
The installation features a rectangular composition measuring 10 × 1.90 meters, designed for 360-degree viewing.
Eighteen sculptural totems rise from a mirror-finished polyurethane surface that evokes the turbid floodwaters that submerged streets.
Each totem serves as a human-scale candelabra, created in collaboration with participating ceramic companies whose earth-toned pieces reference the mud and silt that blanketed the region.
These vertical structures, constructed with prismatic bodies clad in porcelain ceramic, can rotate on their axes – allowing them to transform into urban furniture after the installation concludes. Through this thoughtful design, ‘The Light in the Darkness’ transcends its temporary nature to become a tangible act of restoration, as the totems can later be donated to affected municipalities as benches or commemorative sculptures.
Enduring illumination
The lighting design employs focused light points simulating the few artificial sources that persisted through the post-flood darkness.
Candles positioned atop each totem cast gentle illumination, enhancing the symbolic dimension of the ensemble while creating shadow play that highlights the ceramic textures.
Adding emotional depth, the installation incorporates “Dana Valencia ONG Olvidados,” a powerful photograph by architect and photographer Alfonso Calza.
This larger-scale piece anchors the ensemble, capturing the essence of the disaster and serving as the narrative cornerstone of the project.
Ceramics with purpose
The participation of 18 Spanish ceramic manufacturers reinforces the message of collective action. Each company contributed materials ranging from small tiles to large-format slabs.
The participating firms include Apavisa, Arcana, Azteca, Cevica, Colorker, Cristacer, Decocer, Dune, El Barco, Gayafores, Natucer, Pamesa, ITT Ceramic, Tau, Undefasa, Venux, Vives, and Wow Tiles. Each totem features a plaque and QR code linking to its corresponding company’s website, creating a bridge between contemporary design, ceramic innovation, and social responsibility.
‘The Light in the Darkness’ stands as more than an artistic installation – it’s architecture as memory keeper, a tribute to human resilience in adversity, and a collective statement about the power of spontaneous altruism.
Featured within INTERNI’s “CRE-Action” event, the work interprets the theme as a call to rescue, save, and rebuild, demonstrating design’s potential as a channel for collective memory and hope. Once again, Viruta Lab affirms architecture’s capacity to serve as a vehicle for emotion, history, and commitment.
Facts & Credits
Title The Light in the Darkness | Ephemeral Installation
Typology Art, Installation
Location Università Degli Studi di Milano Sottoportico Cortile di Onore
Status Completed, 2025
Design Viruta Lab
Architects and Designers Maria Daroz & David Puerta
Realisation Tile of Spain
Photography Viruta Lab, INTERNI Magazine & Paolo Consaga
Text by the authors
Take a look at another project by Viruta Lab ‘Casa Gesso in Valencia: transforming feminist art into contemporary architecture’, here!
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