Ana Quijano in "Ámbito Financiero".
In the Menéndez library's gallery, María Silvia Corcuera presents "La Dote Argentia", a necklace and ornament exhibition that draws the attention of the connoisseur. Corcuera's work shows not only humour, but also the use of tools provided only by a deep knowledge of art history. Among the exhibits, there are necklaces recalling the style of the pectoral necklaces of the Middle Ages, collages that evoke the style of the Bauhaus Movement, and - closer to contemporary times - ornaments composed of coffee pods, string, needles, and similar disposables, reminiscent of a pathetic "La Dote Argentia".
Disposable bijouterie is as beautiful and pretentious as it is sad and degraded. It possesses the carnivalesque joy of the cotillón (a sort of ball, very common in Argentina, characteristic for its flamboyant accessories). "Argentia is Argentina, and it means "silver" as well", comments Corcuera. "As is the case with this country, that believes itself to be rich but instead is insular, extreme. We are not rich. Argentia is the lies we choose to believe. This is a lie the country itself told itself. The concept of ornament, of splendour, is born there. To this country I bestow my work, with the dowry, the splendour of the ingenuity of the ordinary. With almost nothing. They are pieces built with structures of the wire that surrounds the cork of a champagne bottle. Like our joy, kept in place with hook pins. It is fiction. Nowadays even more so, with so many counter-meanings. That is why I chose to join the exhibition "Dos Papeles de la Ciudad", from the series "Todo es un Globo". Latin America is built by day and destroyed by night". Corcuera finishes her reflections by asking herself "why is it destroyed?", and, with wisdom and some cynicism, she answers her own question: "in order to keep on building".