The National Monte de Piedad celebrates its 250th anniversary with the exhibition Simultaneity

▲ Mutual presence of eternal times , mural in progress by Arnaldo Coen in the Tezontle Patio of the NMP headquarters. Photo courtesy of Nacional Monte de Piedad

Merry MacMasters

La Jornada NewspaperWednesday, February 26, 2025, p. 2

Nacional Monte de Piedad (NMP) commemorates its 250th anniversary under the concept of Mexicans helping Mexicans, in order to celebrate its legacy and tradition, and with art as a means to narrate the history of this financial institution.

Yesterday, Simultaneidad was inaugurated, a collective exhibition in which 10 artists were invited to intervene or create a piece based on objects that remain in the NMP warehouses. In addition, the painter Arnaldo Coen gave the first stroke of the mural Mutua presencia de tiempos eternas (Mutual presence of eternal times ), which he will create in the Patio Tezontle.

Also presented were the 12 panels of the mural Mexicans helping Mexicans , by the Chiapas painter Erick Tzucumo, painted in two other spaces in the institution's headquarters building.

Another of the pieces unveiled was the installation of a sound vibration, Prosperity and Abundance , by Tania Candiani, which reflects the perpetual movement of the energies that NMP channels, aligned with its mission of solidarity and financial support.

The artists participating in Simultaneidad were selected by a committee made up of Lourdes Sosa, Bruno Newman, Rafael Micha, Natalia Herrera, Brett Schultz and Andrés Medina. The creators are Betsabeé Romero, Laura Rosete, Chavis Marmol, Débora Delmar, Marcos Rountree, Edgar Orlaineta, Cisco Jiménez, Zoveck Estudio –whose guitar is a collaboration between Sonia Romero and Julio Carrasco–, Jorge Cejudo and Éramos Tantos –a space for graphic and audiovisual innovation founded by Manuel and Christian Cañibe–.

Betsabeé Romero intervened with a bicycle, Cisco Jiménez started with a cutting machine to make the piece Basamento , while the work Commitment , by Débora Delmar, consists of six small security boxes placed in a horizontal line. Simultaneidad is curated by Guillermo Santamarina.

The commemoration has as its starting point a history written with the effort of millions of Mexicans helping Mexicans. Two and a half centuries ago, a man with vision and deep social commitment, Pedro Romero de Terreros, founded NMP with a clear mission: to provide support to those in need through pawn loans, a purpose that remains firm 250 years later, always maintaining its essence of being a pillar of solidarity, trust and hope for millions of families in Mexico, with more than 300 branches throughout the country, with new digital tools and a team of committed collaborators , the institution shared in a message.

As part of the commemoration, a discussion was held in which David Coto, on behalf of NMP, asked a series of questions to gallery owner Lourdes Sosa and curator and artist Guillermo Santamarina. To the question, “What is the role of art in the construction of Mexico’s historical memory and how does it contribute to keeping institutions like NMP alive?” Santamarina pointed out that art is the backbone not only of the great phenomenon of culture, social encounter and the development of language, but it is also the reason for solidarity, for a humanistic confirmation. It is interesting that institutions, and not only those of the government, participate in this enormous process that, at the same time, is a way of being better human beings .

Sosa indicated that art as a concept and practice should be accessible to all people . He agreed that art transcends borders of all kinds. This collaborative part between private initiative, art and public institutions somehow generates the democratization of art with a greater reach .

The event took place in the central courtyard of the building, beneath the stained glass window Versión celeste , made by Vicente Rojo in 2019. When asked how the curatorial narrative of this celebration was designed to reflect the connection between NMP’s historical legacy and the present day? , Santamarina referred to the fusion of times, “from the most distant to this (Rojo’s stained glass window), one of the most striking and relevant pieces of contemporary culture. Vicente Rojo’s work is what illuminates and covers all these times.

“This emblem of time, which merges into the present, is spread everywhere in the installation of the exhibition Simultaneity. ”

For Sosa, one of the great challenges that has arisen from the collaboration between the art world and the institutional world lies in the need to establish a balance between the philanthropic mission , in this case of NMP, and the vision of art.

In beginning his new mural, Coen said: This is the first stroke of a gigantic commitment, and I hope to outlive it. I am proud to undertake this game in space and time. The intention of painting this piece is to exercise freedom. A freedom not only of the artist, but of the spectator, who is the one who will enrich the work .

▲ Producer Berenice González, actress Mariana Villegas, director Mariana Giménez, producer Irene Azuela and actress Paula Watson, of the play that will premiere on Friday at the Shakespeare Forum. Photo courtesy of the production

Merry MacMasters

La Jornada NewspaperWednesday, February 26, 2025, p. 3

Motherhood is the central theme of Casas vacías , a play directed by Mariana Giménez Videla that will debut at the Foro Shakespeare on Friday. Based on the novel of the same name by Brenda Navarro (Mexico City, 1982), published in 2019 by Sexto Piso, this production offers a non-traditional, even harsh and painful look, because it also speaks of non-motherhood; all the facets of being a woman.

Regarding conception, things are usually put in two ways: black and white, while in between there is nothing , Giménez Videla said at a press conference. However, there are mandates imposed by society, a lot of dark places too, things that are not talked about . Motherhood is, generally, a unique experience, each woman lives it in a different way. But what happens when a mother loses a child, because it disappears in a playground, to be raised by another mother as her own?

Since theatre is the realm of the impossible, we can invent worlds that we imagine , continued Giménez Videla. A staging, moreover, is a construction, so things can happen with the two actresses that do not happen in the soap opera. That is to say, both mothers meet and, by putting their bodies on the line, there is an intimacy and an interaction that does not occur in the soap opera . That was one of the illusions of staging the play, indicated Irene Azuela, producer along with Berenice González.

The project arose from the producers reading the novel. Reading Brenda's text made me face a number of questions that moved me inside. Questions that have to do with these unique patterns that we suddenly think we have to follow as women. If literature gives voice to these characters and stories, what theater does is put the body in it , Azuela pointed out.

An uncomfortable and necessary place

The producers sent the novel to Giménez Videla, who took a long time to respond because she said it was so hard that she couldn't finish it. Finally, she agreed to stage it . The stage director admitted that it was hard for her to read it because "it starts from an uncomfortable and necessary place. What Casas vacías is trying to say is urgent."

The only two roles are played by actresses Paula Watson and Mariana Villegas. In the novel there are a lot of characters that do not appear as such, although there are these echoes that interact all the time so that this machinery starts to move , Giménez Videla warned. These mothers also do not have names because they represent all women . Humberto Pérez Mortera made the adaptation for the theater.

Paula Watson plays the biological mother , who has a hard time exercising her motherhood and then loses her son. For the actress, this is a very risky work, not only because of the questions it asks, but because of what we propose in terms of partial and relational management; for example, what it means to be a daughter . It is a very sensorial, very emotional experience. It is a novel; however, at the same time we generate universes that do not only obey the word, but the body and its possibility of relating. What I like about this text is that it does not try to solve anything, but rather opens up all the possibilities for the spectator to reflect on the subject .

The non-biological mother is played by Mariana Villegas: In many moments I identify with her almost like a carbon copy of life, although in others it torments me to think that the mandate of being a woman can lead to very violent and incomprehensible places. The play is very faithful to the feeling that the novel provokes .

Watson continued: My character also fulfills a childhood mandate to be a woman, to get married, to stay at home, etc. I like the role because it's quite uncomfortable. It has a bit to do with amoralism in the sense of what happens if you don't want to be a mother, but you are. The disappearance of the son plunges her into absolute sadness and apathy .

Empty Houses will have a season from this Friday until April 13 at the Shakespeare Forum (Zamora 7, Condesa neighborhood), with a duration of 100 minutes; the performances will be on Fridays at 8:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 6 and 8:30 p.m., and Sundays at 6 p.m.

Afp

La Jornada NewspaperWednesday, February 26, 2025, p. 3

London. Dahlia de la Cerda is among the 13 finalists for the 2025 Booker International Prize, a British literary competition that awards a work by a writer from another country, translated into English, the organizers announced yesterday.

The author, born in Aguascalientes 39 years ago, was selected in this first list of 13 finalists, which will be reduced to six on April 8, for her work Perras de reserva , published in 2019 and translated into English by Julia Sanches and Heather Clary as Reservoir bitches .

The jury, which evaluated a selection of 154 works, submitted by publishers and published in the United Kingdom between May 1, 2024 and April 30, 2025, also included in this first list of finalists authors from Palestine, Denmark, Romania, Switzerland, Italy, India, Suriname, Japan (2) and France (3).

Dahlia de la Cerda's novel addresses the lives of 13 women who struggle to find their identity in the midst of marginality.

A collection of interconnected stories about contemporary Mexican women. Extremely funny but deadly serious, it is absolutely explosive from the first page to the last , the jury explained in the statement announcing yesterday this first selection of finalists.

The prize, whose winner will be announced on May 20 at a ceremony at London's Tate Modern museum, carries a cash reward of 50 thousand pounds (1.3 million pesos), to be shared equally between the winning author and the translator of the work.

The Booker International Prize, which was launched in 2005, has not yet had a winner in Spanish or Portuguese.

In the 2024 edition, the German Jenny Erpenbeck won, with the Argentine Selva Almada among the six finalists.