The photographic project Cooking Potato Stories proceeds from the premise that even an ostensibly banal and commonplace object such as the potato may function as a complex cultural artefact. Building upon the author’s original essayistic approach, the potato is here understood not primarily as a foodstuff, but as a medium through which questions of identity, memory, coloniality, and the relationship between the local and the global may be articulated. The exhibition thus opens a space for reflection on how meanings are constituted and transformed across time and space.

A crucial point of departure is the journey of the potato from the Andean region of Latin America to Europe during the period of colonial expansion. This displacement is not merely a historical event, but a process that profoundly shaped epistemic frameworks, cultural hierarchies, and everyday life. In this sense, the potato becomes a witness to colonialism. Although initially received in Europe with suspicion, it gradually assumed a position among the fundamental pillars of the European diet.

Cooking Potato Stories deliberately transcends disciplinary boundaries, operating through a hybrid form that interweaves historical narratives, personal testimonies, culinary practices, visual representations, and speculative imagination. Its methodological grounding lies in the principle of oral history, assembling fragments of stories, recipes, field notes, and mythological motifs. Fragmentation here does not constitute a deficiency; rather, it operates as a strategy that disrupts linear, hierarchical models of narration and opens a space for a plurality of perspectives.

A key dimension of the project is its critical reflection on the coloniality of knowledge. It addresses the historical marginalisation of certain epistemologies—particularly those associated with Indigenous communities of Latin America—which have been systematically delegitimised in favour of European models of knowledge production. In this respect, the project aligns itself with broader discourses of decolonisation, seeking to render alternative modes of thought visible and to create conditions for their equitable encounter. The potato functions here as a connective element linking geographical, temporal, and cultural dimensions.

Ana Núñez Rodríguez, a visual artist and photographer, develops a research-oriented practice articulated within a transcultural field spanning Spain and Colombia. Her work engages with the politics of identity, examined through the prism of her own experience of navigating between distinct cultural contexts and developed in dialogue with other actors. Her artistic practice further explores the relationship between humans and the natural world in connection with colonial structures. She studied at IDEP Barcelona and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and completed the Master’s programme Photography & Society at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK). She is currently a doctoral candidate in Creativity and Social and Sustainable Innovation at Campus CREA, Universidade de Vigo. She was a finalist for the Galicia Prize for Contemporary Photography. Her solo presentations have taken place at FOAM Fotografiemuseum in Amsterdam, LABA Laboratorio de Artes in Buenos Aires, and Anewal Gallery in Kyoto; she has also participated in the Landskrona Foto Festival in Sweden. This marks her first exhibition in the Czech Republic.