Oscar Muñoz: Invisibilia

M A K I N G

MEMORY

AN INTERVIEW WITH OSCAR MUÑOZ BY VANESSA DAVIDSON, CURATOR OF LATIN AMERICAN ART AT THE BLANTON MUSEUM OF ART

OSCAR MUÑOZ: INVISIBILIA

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 – JANUARY 16, 2022 KATZ WING FOR MODERN ART How do we make memories? What do the photographs we take and keep mean to us, both in the moment when the shutter opens and closes and in the years long after? Do the images we create hold the past or shape our recollections? Are they a way for us to remember or to forget, a way to memorialize the life we lived or to create the one we wish we did? How is the photograph a metaphor for life itself?

From September 11, 2021 through January 16, 2022, Arizona audiences will have the opportunity to contemplate haunting questions like these alongside contemporary Colombian artist Oscar Muñoz as they explore the first retrospective of his work in the United States. Co-organized by Phoenix Art Museum and the Blanton Museum of Art, Oscar Muñoz: Invisibilia features approximately 50 works created by the Cali-based artist over the past five decades, including hybrid works that combine photographic processes with drawing, printmaking, installation, video, sculpture, and interactive elements. While materially diverse, each featured work, in its own unique way, examines the invisible, intangible phenomena of time, memory, history, and knowledge. Intellectually rigorous and unendingly fascinating, the retrospective is structured into four thematic sections, with works that explore the dichotomies of absence and presence, memory and amnesia, cohesion and fragmentation, appearance and disappearance. Many require interaction to complete the experience. Viewers, for example, activate Aliento

(Breath) (1995), a series of seemingly blank mirrors, by breathing upon them, revealing obituary portraits of those who have disappeared in armed conflict throughout the Colombian civil war and subsequent Cartel Wars. These images, however, disappear again once the breath dissipates, leaving viewers to peer at their own reflections. Over the past three years, Vanessa Davidson, PhD, the former Shawn and Joe Lampe Curator of Latin American Art at Phoenix Art Museum who is now the Curator of Latin American Art at the Blanton, collaborated closely with Muñoz to bring these evocative and deeply human artworks to U.S. audiences in Invisibilia. Davidson recently corresponded with Muñoz to hear more about his life, his inspirations, and his process in his own words, and that exclusive interview is presented here, translated from Muñoz’s native Spanish. Read on for an intimate glimpse into the musings and deep considerations of an artist who, through his experimental and radical approach to refining and redefining the medium of photography, has become one of the most significant contemporary artists working today. To enjoy the interview in the original Spanish, visit phxart.org/es/blog/oscar-munoz.

VANESSA DAVIDSON: TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR CHILDHOOD. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR MEMORIES FROM THAT TIME?

Oscar Muñoz: I was born in Popayán, Colombia, and lived in Venezuela during my early childhood. There are only a few vague memories from that time and two photographs, faded like those memories, of a house built for warm weather, similar to Cali in Colombia, with long hallways and a lot of light and patios with trees— there was a huge almond tree. Later we moved to Cali when I was around eight years old. I read a paper on [Ludwig] Wittgenstein, who said that the mnemonic image, or the image that helps you make memory, is not a photograph, not static or flat; I wonder if the memory of a photographic image is necessarily that of a frozen image. For me, more than static memories, it is experiences that come up. The things that I recall from my childhood have a lot to do with moments which I relate to materials. For example, I don’t remember the moment lived or the place in either of the two photographs, in which I appear with my sister Norma and with my parents in the first one, and with Norma and my mother in the second one, shaded by a black paper parasol, standing like statues on a pedestal. But I remember having held that wonderful and delicate parasol in my hands, with its innumerable bamboo spokes. I am interested in materials, in surfaces, and a lot of this has to do with the life of play, of childhood, of the child who is crouched like a primitive man, with a curiosity for exploring the world through surfaces, flavors, and smells. I think each human being has a memory like a chest, where they can go to look for the recollected memories of these early experiences. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN (1889-1951) WAS AN AUSTRIANBRITISH PHILOSOPHER WHO WORKED IN LOGIC + THE PHILOSOPHIES OF MATHEMATICS, LANGUAGE + T H E M I N D.

DAVIDSON: YOU USE A LOT OF DIFFERENT MEDIA IN YOUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE. HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF AS AN ARTIST?

Muñoz: I don’t consider myself a photographer, draftsman, or video artist per se, although I’ve worked with all of these media. I’d like to think that I perform the work of a person who repairs things, an activity that is on its way to disappearing, and that, in some ways, is close to what I’ve been doing. I’m dismantling mechanisms—in this case, the systems of printing, producing, and reproducing images—to understand them and make them work again, whether that is with slight differences or with substantial changes to their operation. These have been mechanical methods, like engraving and screen printing, or more complex ones, with programmed operation systems, like photography and video.

DAVIDSON: SPEAKING OF PHOTOGRAPHY, HOW DO YOU VIEW THE PHOTOGRAPHIC PRACTICE?

Muñoz: Photography, from several points of view, has always been a source of attraction for me, a point of infinite richness of meanings and paradoxes that I find fascinating. In terms of its most fundamental practices and rituals, precursors of the photograph can be found in very ancient remnants and myths—in the first shadows cast by our ancestors, in the myth of Plato’s cave, or in the well-known myth of Narcissus. Although a lot of my work is not of a purely photographic nature, I think—and this can be confirmed in the exhibition—that all of my work has been permeated by ideas that come from both the practice and the reflection that photography has prompted, from its beginnings—that relationship with time and the past, the relationship between chemistry and the instant. Its tremendous power as a medium and its relationship with the truth have been raw material for my endeavors, my work.

DAVIDSON: TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROCESS.

Muñoz: I’ve learned that a work is a project that can begin, but you don’t know what it will lead into or when it will end. I don’t trust when I feel sure about something, and if I feel insecure, it’s because I have doubts. Perhaps because of that awareness of this, 15 years ago I opened a space in Cali called Lugar a Dudas (Room for Doubt), which promotes research and creative processes based in the artistic practice. Very often, when I talk about my work, I usually give the example of a man who crosses a mud path, leaving footprints as he walks. Once he passes, there can be two possibilities: that it rains again and his trail is erased, or the sun comes out and his mark is solidified.

DAVIDSON: FROM YOUR POINT OF VIEW, WHAT IS THE ROLE OF ART AND THE ARTIST IN THESE TIMES?

Muñoz: I don’t know if the artist fills a certain role. I think perhaps the essence of their vision and their critical practice lies in their endeavor to reveal other angles, other ways of giving meaning to a situation, and this includes unstable situations. I don’t know— perhaps the artist seeks to generate a type of encounter/separation with otherness, prompted by these provocative signals, by these visions and meanings, whether they are subjective, poetic, evocative, transgressive, or disruptive.

Oscar Muñoz: Invisibilia is co-organized by Phoenix Art Museum and the Blanton Museum of Art. Its Phoenix premiere is made possible through the generosity of The Diane & Bruce Halle Foundation, Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation, and Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, with additional support from the Museum’s Circles of Support and Museum Members. image credits: (page 30) Oscar Muñoz, Cortinas de baño (Shower Curtains), 1985-86. Acrylic on plastic (Acrílico sobre plástico). Collection of the artist. Installation view, Oscar Muñoz, Protografías, Museo de Arte del Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia, 2011. Image courtesy of the artist. (page 31) Oscar Muñoz, 3-3A, 2002. Magnifying glass and four contact negatives installed on wall (Lupa y 4 contactos negativos instalado sobre pared). Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist. (right) Oscar Muñoz, Línea del destino (Line of destiny), 2006 [stills]. Single-channel video (Video monocanal sin sonido), 2”. Collection of the artist. Images courtesy of the artist.

AMERICAN EXPOSURE

FROM PAGE 12 site. Beginning November 27, 2021, the installation will then expand to include additional works by artists whose works are inspired by or showcase the Golden Temple and its intricate design, providing viewers with the opportunity to discern how the sacred space has continued to transform through the centuries. Of particular note are two contemporary works currently on display: a print by The Singh Twins, British artists who fuse traditional Indian and contemporary Western influences in works they label “past modern,” and a pigmented work on paper by Rupy C. Tut, a Punjabi Sikh artist based in Northern California who blends calligraphy and Indian miniature painting. The Singh Twins’ work depicts the story of Bibi Rajani and her husband, who was a leper. The tale dates back to the time of the founding of the town of Amritsar, where the Golden Temple is located. In the work, viewers see Bibi Rajani and her husband next to the Dukh Bhajani Beri, a jujube tree still extant today. Also featured in the composition is a crow that is transforming into a swan, symbolizing the traditional Sikh belief in the healing power of both the sacred tree and the water surrounding the Golden Temple. Tut’s 2020 work entitled Darshan, on the other hand, visualizes the phenomena of the same name. Darshan are blessed visions, revelations, or acts of perceiving the Guru, whose depiction is influenced by historical, contemporary, and personal narratives about individual experiences at the Golden Temple. These visions are experienced by devotees of various ages, genders, statuses, and levels of faith. Because they occur across a range of believers, darshan effectively erase or blur superficial or worldly differences, uniting those of disparate backgrounds through a shared experience of the divine. “The Golden Temple has been a favorite subject of both historical and contemporary artists for more than 400 years because of its harmonious blending of Hindu and Muslim architectural traditions,” said Janet Baker, PhD, the Museum’s curator of Asian art. “This installation will provide visitors with a rich portrait of this distinctive monument, marked by a stunning sacred pool, gilded domes, marble balustrades, murals of floral and mythological motifs, and decorative elements made of jewels, mirrors, ivory, and glass, its splendor indelible.”

The Golden Temple: Center of Sikh Faith is organized by Phoenix Art Museum. It is made possible through the generosity of the Sikh Heritage Fund, with additional support from the Museum’s Circles of Support and Museum Members. FROM PAGE 29 (symbolized through YSL’s choice of black wool crepe) and the angelic virgin (hinted at through Gernreich’s selection of ivory silk satin). Equally scandalous in their time, Gernreich’s suit was forbidden to take the runway at the 1964 Coty American Fashion Critics Awards fashion show, and YSL’s 1966 original release of “Le Smoking Tuxedo” sold only one version. The tuxedo’s sleeker second iteration, which is featured in Fashion’s Subversives, was created in 1967 for Rive Gauche, his ready-to-wear line, and it was an immediate success. The designer went on to include a different version of the tuxedo in each of his collections every season until his final one in 2002, and iterations of the design still appear in the house’s collections even today. Designers such as Tom Ford, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, and many others have also offered their own luxury versions of this ultimate status symbol in their womenswear lines. From Madonna’s Blond Ambition power suits to Hillary Clinton’s boxy pastel armor to Janet Mock’s tangerine red-carpet look, the pantsuit continues to demand respect and exude authority, enduringly impressive and imposing on every body.

FROM PAGE 27 individual “case studies,” the project was presented in 1959 and circulated as a didactic exhibition. Finally, Freedom Must Be Lived sheds light on the subject Palfi focused her lens on more than any other during her long career: racism and violence toward Black Americans. Spanning the 1940s through the 1970s, featured works are drawn from four distinct projects, including Palfi’s multi-city exposé of racial discrimination in U.S. urban-housing centers, a grouping of photos that document the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and Ask Me If I Got Justice, which documented prison life at Trenton State Prison in New Jersey, now known as New Jersey State Prison. Audiences also have the opportunity to explore works from There Is No More Time: An American Tragedy (1949), one of Palfi’s first projects illuminating the role and effects of systemic racism. The in-depth study documented both white and Black residents of Irwinton, Georgia, after a white mob lynched Caleb Hill Jr. Black community members, however, appear less frequently in the series, and, according to Maurice Berger’s 2015 article about the project for The New York Times, this unequal representation, along with Palfi’s writings and interviews with town residents, challenges viewers to consider who is really responsible for talking about race, while also defying the myth that “racism was exceptional, perpetrated only by monstrous or evil people.” “’There Is No More Time’ revealed an enduring secret of American race relations: that ostensibly good people — men and women much like our neighbors, our family and ourselves — could also harbor virulent prejudices,” Berger wrote. “For Ms. Palfi, this revelation was necessary and urgent.” Upon reflection, Sands called the oft-forgotten photographer’s work showcased throughout Freedom Must Be Lived “trenchant, poetic, piercing, and compassionate in its portrayal of an America that promises freedom for all but delivers it only to a privileged few.” “She actively confronted the political, racial, and economic injustices that overshadowed her lifetime,” Sands said, “and given the continued resonance of these topics, now is the perfect moment to rediscover Palfi’s important work.”

Freedom Must Be Lived: Marion Palfi’s America, 1940–1978 is organized by Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography. It is made possible through the generosity of the John R. and Doris Norton Center for Creative Photography Endowment Fund, The Opatrny Family Foundation, and Sue and Bud Selig, with additional support from the Museum’s Circles of Support and Museum Members.

I want to share the joy of giving with everyone.”

DORIS ONG

TRUSTEE, PHOENIX ART MUSEUM Supporting Phoenix Art Museum since 1996

Istarted as a volunteer at Phoenix Art Museum more than two decades ago. There were many mentors who gave me the courage to serve in leadership roles and on the Museum’s Board of Trustees. As an inductee into the Honorary Commander program at Luke Air Force Base, donating to the Museum’s Military Access Program (MAP@PAM), which provides free admission for veterans, active-duty military service men and women, and their immediate families, is a way of showing gratitude to military families for their service. Whether it is funding an initiative to document the creative process from concept to finished product by a fashion designer like New York-based, zero-waste fashion designer YEOHLEE for the exhibition ultracontemporary, as well as the resulting suite of clothes for the Museum’s fashiondesign collection; or just being inspired by the art on the Museum’s walls, I want to share the joy of giving with everyone.

image credit: John Hall Photography.