By Ellie Armon Azoulay
Five screens show a concrete surface like the kind used to build monuments. Each screen in turn shows a handheld brush, dipped in water, drawing sketches of people whose obituaries have been published in local newspapers.
As one image is in the process of being created, the water images on the other screens start drying out, and as soon as a sketch is completed, the brush moves quickly on to one that has almost disappeared, trying to save it from falling into the abyss of oblivion. The hand belongs to Colombian artist Óscar Muñoz, and the screens comprise one of his works in a solo exhibition at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, his first exhibit in Israel. "Immemorial" deals with the mechanisms of memory, perpetuation and oblivion, and with the power of the image and the photograph. It is curated by Jose Roca, a Colombian curator who works with Muñoz and made a special trip here for the exhibition, and Ghila Limon, a new curator at the Herzliya Museum who is from Colombia ...
Indeed, the main interest in Muñoz's works stems from his ability to represent routine daily life in his country, touching on subjects that are best not discussed out loud.
Most of the works in "Immemorial," which features video installations, notes and photos, derive their subjects from the reality in Colombia, the unrestrained violence that has sown destruction there for over 60 years now, along with erratic and occasionally corrupt governments, a reign of terror and the constant threat from drug cartels, and the murders and mysterious disappearances of countless numbers of people ...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070092.html