Welcome to Maza Armory, where you can find pistols, machine guns, semi-automatics and other firearms. What do you want to do with them? Is it a cold-blooded murder? A school shooting? Or are you going to war?
In a showcase the weapons are arranged recreating a store, a market of objects that serve to kill. Except that they are made of cardboard and wood: they are fake weapons. Their measurements are engraved in graphite, and a label identifies the model of the weapon. The toy guns speak to us of broken childhoods, of the thousands of children who are forced to be witnesses or, in some cases, protagonists of shootings or wars.
Two weapons stand out for their size. They are an M16 and an AK-47, which reach almost four meters. Are they designed for giants? Or are they, once again, a reference to our condition of big children, of little kids playing with cardboard guns, but loaded with real bullets. They are the machine guns used during the coup d'état in Chile, and by Chilean guerrilla groups such as the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front. Norton Maza was two years old when the coup broke out, and when his father was captured and imprisoned. This link between the children's toy and the adult weapon also responds to a personal experience.
On some of the guns in this store, the origin of their alleged manufacture appears: Made in Malaysia. The sarcasm that these toy weapons were made by exploited children in third world countries is raised. To be used in war conflicts in the first world. And sarcasm is the only possibility for reflection in this cynical world.
