Sofía Salazar Rosales Merges Poetry, Dance, and Sculpture at ChertLüdde

Sofía Salazar Rosales, an artist influenced by her Ecuadorian and Cuban heritage and trained in Paris, Lyon, and Amsterdam, presented the exhibition "The Desire to Dance with Someone Who is Not Here" at ChertLüdde gallery in Berlin from April 26 to August 24, 2024. The show features installations that blend visual poetry, dance, and sculpture, exploring themes of absence, displacement, and healing. Works include "While the Wounds Are Open" (2024), which incorporates glass beads, gauze, paraffin, and iron filings, invoking the Yoruba orixá Oxum; "Full of Sweetness (y el mappeo del destierro)" (2024), using paraffin and surgical tape to address displacement; and "Zafra" (2021), made from raw cane sugar, fiberglass, and resin, referencing sugarcane harvest and Latin American architecture. Salazar Rosales's method combines conceptual planning with material spontaneity, often starting from the phrase "Hay cuerpos cansados por el viaje que buscan enraizarse" (There are bodies tired from the journey seeking to root). The exhibition was reviewed by Noushin Afzali, an Iranian journalist and editor based in Berlin.