15.1 x 11.6 cm mirror and 37 x 33.2 x 5.3 cm box frame
Collection it belongs to:
Collection Michael Jenkins-Javier Romero
Inventory no.:
MJJR196
Photographs
Artwork text
The artistic practice of Colombian Oscar Muñoz encompasses photography, installation, sculpture, and video to poetically address themes related to memory and loss. Muñoz makes use of ephemeral materials and actions, imbued with a ghostly quality, such as drawing with water on a sun-exposed stone portraits of effigies taken from the obituary section of a newspaper or apparently black mirrors that come to life when the spectator approaches them and their breath momentarily brings forth portraits of the deceased. Muñoz's work evokes the fleeting nature of the image, its transfiguration, and the passage of time. In this work, the artist investigates the power of a photograph to survive memory. It is a mirror on whose surface Muñoz has engraved an image taken from a daguerreotype made in 1839 by Robert Cornelius. That image is the first photographic self-portrait in history (evidence that the "selfie" is far from being a modern invention), and as we approach the work, the spectator is also reflected in the mirror. An image in constant change that is a metaphor for life.
"Moving forward, Looking back" [Avanzando, mirando atrás]. Alicante, MACA, from June 16 to September 24, 2023.
"Inhabiting the Shadows". Valencia, IVAM, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, from September 25, 2025 to January 18, 2026.
Bibliografía
Exhibition catalog "Inhabiting the Shadows", IVAM, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, 2025. p. 10 ill., p. 12 ill, p. 17 ill.
Artist
Óscar Muñoz
Popayan, Colombia ,
1951
The artistic practice of Colombian Oscar Muñoz encompasses photography, installation, sculpture, and video to poetically address themes related to memory and loss. Muñoz makes use of ephemeral materials and actions, imbued with a phantasmal quality, ...