In his work, Colombian artist Óscar Muñoz focuses on the transience of life and memory. Muñoz often bases his ideas on obituaries or articles about missing people that he finds in the Colombian newspapers. One example is his work entitled Re/ trato, 2003, in which he 'paints' portraits on a hot sidewalk with just a brush and water. The water quickly evaporates, so that the portraits can never be finished and the artist, like Sisyphos, is obliged to keep starting all over again. The way pictures dissolve or disintegrate plays a central role in the Biografías installation. Three portraits entitled #1, #3, and #6 are projected onto an area on the ground, in the middle of which is a small metal drain. Initially, one can see the entire face, then it begins to blur, to curl up and look grotesque before slowly disappearing slowly down the drain like some kind of viscous liquid. There, the whole process is reversed and the image comes back up into the basin. We hear the accompanying sound of water running down the drain then the basin slowly filling up again. [...]

Susanne Touw
Translation: Sarah Trenker


Catalogue excerpt
fast forward 2. The Power of Motion
Media Art Sammlung Goetz
Editors: Ingvild Goetz and Stephan Urbaschek
Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 2010

Óscar Muñoz, Biografías, 2002
Single-channel video installation (projections), color, sound
Edition 3/5 (+ 2 a. p.)
2' 32"-2' 42"