Remembrance editor

Abstract

It is of common knowledge that memory and that remembrance is a flawless human mechanism. We think that when an event is remembered; the image I have of it is the exact representation of what really happened. Nevertheless, memory and remembrance are more fallible than what we think they are. The Colombian artist Óscar Muñoz, in his work Lonely Editor (2011), makes an exploration of what are the limitations of memory and the paradoxes that exist for trying to register and preserve it. The main objective of this essay is to show how, in Muñoz’s work, memory limitations are exposed, to show how misleading mnemonic register is and to show the human frustration for wanting to preserve them. To show it, this text makes a dialogue with Barthes’ work (relative to the photographic portrait as a record) and with Ricœur’s work (relative to the relationship between memory and forgetfulness in re-memoration process). The essay will develop as follows: I begin by a brief description of the work, then I present the portrait as a photographic registry and its limitations; then I explain the advantages and the scope of

video as a technological mean and the features of the screening are analyzed. In the final section, I explain how the interaction between the work and the public reinforces the thesis put forward.