The Line of Destiny, Master Lecture by Óscar Muñoz

THE LINE OF DESTINY, MASTER LECTURE BY ÓSCAR MUÑOZ

The Licancabur Hall of the Minera Escondida Foundation hosted the only master lecture in Chile by one of the most important and world-renowned contemporary Latin American creators. The meeting on November 25 at 6 p.m. generated a first-person approach to the exhibition displayed in the Art Gallery of the foundation in Antofagasta. Through honest and slow, but also profound and transcendental dialog, the artist unfolded the different aspects of his most intimate memories related to the rigorous and systematic production for more than forty years.

Among the different artistic and conceptual references that influenced his practice, he mentioned American sociologist Richard Sennett (Chicago, 1943) in his 2008 book The Craftsman, a work that values making as a way of thinking. The Colombian artist makes a special mention of the chapter dedicated to repairs, highlighting that all repairing always implies a previous understanding. The craftsman can restore, repair or reconfigure old objects with new and original functions. The artist finds this innovative character regarding an apparently known or limited knowledge deeply significant since his own artwork has turned out to be the reconfiguration of the usual uses of photography as a time-fixing device.

The first photograph in history that captured The Craftsman by Richard Sennett the presence of the human being is another important reference for the Colombian artist. (2008), the first photograph with human It is a daguerreotype from 1838, taken by Louis Daguerre in a building on the Boulevard du presence by Louis Daguerre (1838), and Temple in Paris, France. The peculiarity of this piece is that it represents buildings, streets, the first photographic self-portrait in sidewalks, and trees in an apparent state of abandonment, however, nothing in it reveals history by Robert Cornelius (1839) are the hundreds of people who were certainly passing through this place at the time of the important references to him. photographic capture. At that time, captures required a long exposure time, so the slight and hurried movement of passers-by was not recorded on the copper plate, except for a single person who was having their shoes polished. This piece allows him to reflect on the conquest of the instant and, at the same time, on the abysmal distances between reality and its representation.

Muñoz’s third reference has to do with the first photographic self-portrait in history, taken by Robert Cornelius in 1839 in Philadelphia, United States. Due to his knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy, he was able to perfect the daguerreotype and build his own photographic device. The resulting image of this machine showed him his own reflection as if it were a mirror, only now it was fixed, stable, immortal, and perpetual to the vicissitudes of time and the decomposition of the flesh. This historical piece and its respective symbolic repercussions linked to transcendence would be the basis of his work Before the Image (2009), 50 editions of ten engravings each, in common mirrors mounted on aluminum with the self-portrait of Cornelius. For the contemplation of this piece, the viewer must intervene, observing the self-portrait while observing the superimposition

of his own reflection. In the same way, the viewer perceives the slow but inevitable disappearance of Cornelius’ image, since this work is made to disappear, age, and even die, as mentioned by the artist. The manipulation and the action of the air intervene in the image of Cornelius, generating patina and deterioration, a clear material metaphor of the passing of life, a symbolic closure to the initial fixation. In Muñoz’s words, “a portrait more akin to life itself, to the possibility of being affected by changes.”

From here on, the artist shared different works related to the fixation of images and their subsequent dematerialization, works that explore memory and the passage of time with ephemeral materialities. Among them, Narciso (1994-2011), a series of impressions of his face with charcoal powder on water surfaces contained in buckets, stood out. The fragility of this work is radical, as any movement and even the evaporation of the water itself alters the configuration of these images.

Breath (1995) was another work he presented, a series of portraits printed in grease photo serigraph on circular metallic mirrors, arranged at the height of the viewer. At first glance, the mirrors appear empty; however, they conceal photographs of faces of different people previously exhibited in obituaries, which are revealed only when the viewer exhales on their surface. In this brief instant, the viewer’s reflection is replaced by the face of someone who has already passed away, which symbolically comes back to life thanks to the vital breath of whoever observes and participates in the work. As in the previous series, the revealed image is transitory, its activation itself deteriorates it, making it disappear.

Then he shared Re/trato (2003), a video of a hand insistently drawing a face with water on a piece of ceramic exposed to the sun. Given the heat, the face never ends up being seen and it is the retinal persistence that completes the countenance in the viewer’s memory. Constancy, perseverance and tenacity are part of a significant process that highlights the transience of existence, between reminiscence and oblivion.

Lastly, he showed Fade to White (2010), a record that the artist made of his father when he was very ill, shortly before his death. Therefore, it is a deeply personal work, autobiographical in nature, a true family portrait, and consequently, a moving memorial that not only recalls the corporeality and gestures of his father, but also updates his image in the present, facing his irrevocable departure. He then opened a closing space for questions from the audience, which, in one way or another, summarized everything that was presented, a perfect opportunity to share an unprecedented and generous journey with the artist through his exhibition, dialoging with the audience, impacted by the four works of Muñoz commented in the interview and in the analysis that opens the section museum without museum of this book.