Aliento

source: philagrafika2010

Popayán, Colombia, 1951.
Lives and works in Cali, Colombia. His work has been exhibited in numerous group shows including the Venice Biennale (2007), Prague Biennale (2005), and Cuenca Bienal (2004); in 2008 he had solo exhibitions at the Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada, the Herzliya Museum, Israel, the Institute of International Visual Arts (INIVA), London, UK, and the Museo Extremeño e iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo, Badajoz, Spain.

Over the past three decades, Óscar Muñoz has developed a remarkable body of work that explores the relationship between image and memory. His work defies characterization by medium, blurring the boundaries between photography, printmaking, drawing, installation, video and sculpture. Although he has abandoned traditional formats, he cleverly utilizes specific technical and conceptual aspects of printmaking-occasionally incorporating self-destructive elements to purposely challenge the consistency of reproduction that is synonymous with printing. The expressive power of his work is as grounded in the intrinsic qualities of the materials he employs as in the poetic associations they embody.

Through his innovative processes, such as printing charcoal pigment on water, or using human breath to reveal discretely printed portraits onto seemingly blank mirrors, Muñoz creates unstable images that oscillate between presence and absence. He uses images from newspaper obituaries that include victims of the drug trafficking and political conflicts in Colombia where he lives and works. He is fascinated by photographic images as the primary documentation of a person’s physical existence in a culture overwhelmed by the vulnerability of life: the person’s image, imprinted on film (or captured in digital code), leaves an indexical trace of their being. Muñoz manipulates the photographic images in order to question the meaning of identity and to reflect the process of recollection and fading memory, alluding to the transitory nature of human existence, memory and history. The viewer witnesses the dissolution of an image as a manifestation of the person’s disappearance or death. Highly regarded as one of the most important visual artists working in Colombia today, Muñoz has captivated audiences around the world with the universal subject that underlies all of his work-the commonality of loss and remembrance.

Images

Narcissi in process is a set of self-portraits printed in charcoal pigment on water in shallow vitrines lined with paper; the water slowly evaporates during the course of the exhibition, eventually allowing the pigment to settle onto the paper in a slightly altered version of the original portrait image—the variability inherent to the process makes the resulting image in each vitrine unique.

Biographies is a video installation of portrait images taken from newspaper obituaries. Muñoz created these video portraits by printing pigment onto water in a sink and filming the disintegration of the image as the water drains; the video also shows the process in reverse so that the portrait continually dissipates and reconstitutes.
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source: sicardi

Oscar Muñoz was born in Popayán, Colombia and graduated in 1971 from the Escuela de Bellas Artes of Cali where he continues to live and work. For over twenty years, Muñoz has been producing work that investigates the nature of representation by means of unorthodox photographic and mechanical printing techniques, as well as through works that employ video. Often, these images are created using unusual and unstable materials such as human breath, water, light, wax, and dust as ways of calling attention to the precarious nature of human life, narcissism, and altruism.
Muñoz’s works are in important public and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Daros Collection, Zurich, Switzerland; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The CU Art Museum, University of Colorado at Boulder; and the Tate Modern in London. In 2007, Muñoz was invited to participate in the 52nd International Venice Biennale curated by Robert Storr. In the past decade he has participated in group exhibitions and solo exhibitions at many international art institutions, including O.K. Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz Austria; Pori Art Museum, Pori Finland; The Korea Foundation, Seoul Korea; Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporaneo (MEIAC), Badajoz, Spain, Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto Canada; Institute of International Visual Arts (INIVA), London, U.K.; Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico DF, Philagrafika: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia U.S, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid Spain; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima Japan; Daros Exhibitions, Zurich Switzerland; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo Japan; and the PICA Museum, Perth Australia.

Oscar Muñoz lives and works in Cali, Colombia.
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source: mor-charpentier

Oscar Muñoz (Popayàn. Colombie 1951) vit et travaille actuellement à Cali, Colombie. L’artiste a démarré sa formation dans les années 70 à l’école des Beaux-Arts de Cali; la photographie, et plus largement les mediums audiovisuels n’y étaient alors pas enseignés. A cette époque, il réalisait une série de dessins à partir de photos prises lors voyages et de recherches sur les intérieurs vétustes des immeubles de la ville. Son travail insiste, d’une part à documenter ce scénario immémorial; cette «logique de la pensée quotidienne”, partant de l’impossibilité du maintien et de la fixation des images de façon pérenne ; et en essayant d’autre part, de faire mémoire en utilisant un mécanisme similaire, l’inaccessible, l’impermanence, et la détérioration. Il utilise toujours le fait photographique, son essentialité chimique étant une référence et, surtout, une métaphore, le travail se concentre particulièrement sur le mode portrait.

Les œuvres d’Oscar Muñoz sont représentées dans des institutions et collections de premier plan, à l’instar de la Tate Modern à Londres, du Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) de Los Angeles, de la collection Daros à Zurich, du Miami Art Museum, du Hirshorn Museum à Washington D.C, du Museum of Fine Arts de Houston, du Museo del Barrio à New York, de la Fondation Caixa de Barcelone, du Musée d’Art Moderne de Bogota ou encore de la Bibliothèque Luis Angel Arango de Bogota.
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source: diegomontanacuellarblogspot

Óscar Muñoz nació en Popayán en 1951 en el seno de una familia clase media. Desde muy temprano mostró interés en el dibujo, el cual rápidamente se consolido como su pasatiempo favorito. Posteriormente, siendo estudiante de bachillerato ingresa a el instituto de Bellas Artes de Cali junto con sus hermanas, con el ánimo de sus padres. Su trabajo se caracteriza por el uso de múltiples recursos técnicos como el dibujo, la fotografía, el video, las instalaciones y la producción de objetos en los cuales se combinan elementos tecnológicos y artísticos con un sentido gestual y poético. Muñoz se refiere frecuentemente a aspectos vitales como los fenómenos físicos de la corporeidad, la temporalidad, lo efímero, la desintegración, la desaparición y la muerte.