Oscar Muñoz
We need to forget, for legitimate reasons of self-defence and health, but it is also necessary to remember. Memory filters things that should be remembered and others that should be forgotten (Muñoz, 2004).
Colombian, Oscar Muñoz, is one of Latin America’s most significant artists. Much of his practice – including video installation, portraiture, drawing, painting, and performance – is concerned with memory, particularly in relation to the 50 years of political and social turmoil that has plagued his native land. Through his image-making, Oscar Muñoz explores memory’s ephemeral and mutable nature. Dr. Hans-Michael Herzog (2005), Director and Curator of the Daros Latinamerica Collection (Switzerland) describes how the artist “focuses on the evanescence of our memories, on the change that affects them so persistently that precise recall is all but impossible. He makes it clear that memories, and the time they are linked to are relative and ultimately elusive, however hard we try to remember”. Humanity is central to Oscar Muñoz’s expression of memory: “He renews our idea of the volatility and vulnerability of the images we make – and also of our place inside them” (Rhodes, 2008).
Selected exhibitions of Oscar Muñoz’s work include:
- 2009 Oscar Muñoz Mirror Image, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Australia.
- 2008 Imprints for a Fleeting Memorial, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art and YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toronto, Canada.
- 2008 Oscar Muñoz Mirror Image, Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), London, UK.
- 2007 Proyecto para un Memorial, 52nd Venice Biennial, Italy.
- 2005 Re/trato, 51st Venice Biennial, Italy.
- 2005 Cantos Cuentos Colombianos. Arte Colombiano Contemporáneo, Daros Exhibitions, Zurich, Switerland.
- 2004 Oscar Muñoz. Tres video-proyecciones, Galería Alcuadrado, Madrid, Spain.
- 2004 Retratos. 2000 Years of Latin American Portraits, Museum of Art, San Diego; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA.
- 2002 Narcisos, Face Value: Contemporary video works from Colombia, L.A. Freewaves, Los Angeles, USA.
Oscar Muñoz’s works are represented in significant international collections such as Tate Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles; Miami Art Museum, Florida; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Museum of Modern Art, Bogota; Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogota; Museum of Modern Art ‘La Tertulia’, Cali, Colombia.
Oscar Muñoz is the Director of lugar a dudas in Cali, Colombia. lugar a dudas (“place of doubt”) is a space for debate, reflection and critical dialogue around contemporary art, with a focus on the relationship between art practices and the social context that informs them.
Oscar Muñoz in conversation with Hans-Michael Herzog in Herzog, H. M. and Schmidheiny, R. (2004). Cantos Cuentos Colombianos. Contemporary Colombian Art. Zurich: Daros Latinamerica AG, p. 246.
Herzog, H. M., (2005). The Hours: Visual arts of contemporary Latin America. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, p. 19:02.
Rhodes, R. (2008, January 31). Oscar Muñoz in Toronto. CanadianArt. Retrieved: 2 November 2009.
