ATLAS III, mutatis mutandis, 2017-18 (work in progress) The installation on view here is both a model and a work in progress. It integrates my researches on the process of memory, the evolving nature of photography in the digital era, and the construction of printed visual archives. While making this work, I have been inspired by Aby Warburg ´s “Atlas Mnemosyne” and the persistence of the symbolic trade that images conduct, and also by Joan Fontcuberta’s theories on post-photography and accumulation. mutatis mutandis emulates an encyclopedic space, the imagery appearing as streams of current shared knowledge and life experience. Both words are participles of the Latin verb mutare ("to move; to change; to exchange"), which function both as a future passive participle ("to be changed; going to be changed") and as a verbal adjective or noun expressing necessity ("things needing to be changed"). mutatis mutandis derives from a large collection of images (some are my own and others are sourced from diverse origins) grouped into several categories. Among them: art history, the body, language, home, landscape, war and conflict zones, and memory. I am exploring the de-sensitization that occurs when we receive masses of disparate and conflicting images on a daily basis. Are our reactions based on an ephemeral experience or a physical one? How do the billions of images that circulate every day via the internet affect us, viewed on our fixed and/or portable screens, and how does this experience contrast with viewing printed images on a wall, in a gallery context? I am interested in the idea of photography acting as a Doppelganger or mirror of our current digitally-dependent lives. The accumulation of printed images in mutatis mutandis emulates digital flows, aggregating the powerful symbols and aids that insert themselves into our lives and ultimately, our collective memories.

previous work

next work