Anhelo de lo simple by Nany Salazar

Curaduría: Catalina Bunge
Artista: Nany Salazar
Lugar: Museo Mazzoni, Maldonado
Fecha: 7th of march to 7th of april 2025

Anhelo de lo simple by Nany Salazar

Between the ages of 7 and 10, Margarita moved several times. Air raids destroyed her home and those of many other neighbors. The sirens, relentless, announced time and again the disaster that would mark her life forever. She grew up in a context of war, scarcity, and precariousness. Survival was her only certainty. The next step was finding a roof over her head, a bed to sleep in, a table to eat at, or a window to look at the sky—simple luxuries for those who didn’t have them, but essential in that time and place.

Loops are cyclic sequences of instructions in which an action is repeated as long as a certain condition is met; the process is infinite until that condition ceases to be fulfilled.

Margarita’s story could be that of many children today. The present unfolds with the same patterns: armed conflicts, fascist and extremist regimes, and besieged cities. What conditions do we continue to uphold that allow these to persist?

Margarita’s tormented childhood was followed by an adolescence constrained by an authoritarian, oppressive, and patriarchal political regime. What was once a dream eventually became her refuge and a solid structure. What price does our security carry? What does survival mean today? What do we value or overvalue?

A piece of cardboard can be a house, a table, or a floor. For Nany, it is also the preferred medium with which she reconstructs the objects her mother longed for in that interrupted childhood. The result is the materialization of a yearning and the fragility of a not-so-distant era—one that continues today under different names and in different geographies.

How permeable is the loop that dictates our history? How strong are we against it?

Catalina Bunge