Untitled (I wanted to be a teacher)

Photo credits: Reproduced with permission of the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá – MAMBO
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María Paulina Pérez

1984
B/N photography
100 x 69.7 cm

This photograph, from the series “Various Verbs,” taken in a nursing home in Chocó, explores the illusion of desire, being and wanting to do. An elderly woman with white hair, seated in a chair, challenges us with her gaze. A cushion rests on her lap and behind her appears the phrase “I wanted to be a teacher.” It reflects on childhood dreams and equal opportunities to realise them. For many, the freedom to choose one’s profession is a utopia that only happens in dreams, a chimera between the cushions. This work raises doubts about the true situation of the right to freely choose a profession or trade enshrined in article 26 of the Constitution.