Memorama, memoramar

El memorama es un juego que consiste en colocar cartas revueltas con ilustraciones, palabras, números o colores bocabajo con el fin de encontrar sus pares al voltearlas por turnos haciendo uso de la memoria, gana quien al final haya conseguido obtener la mayor cantidad de cartas.

¿Por qué miramos las cosas?
para entenderlas o yo qué sé.
¿Qué necesidad hay de entenderlo todo?

parece que todo se nos escapa, se nos olvida. ¿Por qué las cosas desaparecen?

Estamos ahora de vuelta en la infancia, específicamente en la primaria, están el niño que juega solo en el recreo y la niña que te ayuda con la tarea de matemáticas.
Mar es el niño que saca un mazo de cartas memorama y juega, y mientras las voltea aleatoriamente recrea en su cabeza el acto mismo del juego: primero revoltura y confusión, luego curiosidad, acercamiento azaroso, observar en silencio, tratar de recordar, dar la vuelta, orden aparente, respuestas.

Volver a empezar.

Porque las cosas desaparecen, se acaban, se desacomodan y hay que volver a tratar de entenderlas. Y es divertido, y es doloroso, y es divertido de nuevo.

—Arhat Alejandro

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La obra de Mar se encuentra en el azul profundo, en un espacio de la casa, (o del cuerpo), donde hay mucha luz y mucha sombra. En ese espacio es posible vislumbrar el pasado y el futuro y recurrir a recuerdos que quizá sean tuyos.

A través de archivos, crea una memoria propia, en la que se puede encontrar a sí misma. Se apropia del tiempo.

A través del texto, abre las puertas de la casa para que entre el viento, y quienes pasan por fuera, pueden ver lo que hay dentro: una forma de ver y sentir el mundo cómo las plantas o cómo las estrellas.

A través de la unión de archivo\texto\imagen deja escuchar el susurro del viento, que cuenta una historia que reconoces... Una historia que es cercana y lejana a la vez.

— Alethia García

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I had the chance to review Mar’s portfolio in June of 2024 as part of my time in Guadalajara. As my practice is broadly based within photography I was particularly struck by various elements of Mar’s work and engagement with the medium.  This included her innovative use of technology, her capacity to explore well established themes of time, memory and erasure in innovative ways, and finally her focus on complicating specific viewing situations of her work. I reviewed two of Mar’s projects: a photographic series of historic family photos that had their central figure erased through post processing erasure via photoshop, and a photographic installation of printed works which included text and complicated viewing scenarios through windows and under water. 

This first series uses a familiar trope in found image work - that of the removal of the central figure - commonly people, and engages with the usual questions of loss and the uncertainty of memory, however it is in the failure of complete removal that Mar’s work stands out. The faint exterior lines left behind which suggest the shape of the former figure give the works a quality of being haunted by their previous inhabitants. This imperfect erasing renders a thin black line which breaks the visual continuity of the photographic plane and provides the viewer an access point to the photos intended themes and effectively exploits the ready-made photoshop tool of smart erasing. 

The photographic installation was effective again because of its ability to complicate the straight forward viewing process, this time however by setting up complex viewing situations of the images themselves. The work that most stood out to me in this scenario was the image adhered to the bottom of a sink and covered in water. This material connection meaningfully brings up ideas of the actual historic process of tray developing analogue photos while also encouraging the viewer to look deeper and longer in an attempt to discover the subject of the image itself. 

In all instances, Mar’s work complicates the normally straight forward nature of photography which can so often be taken as a direct mirror of the outside world - though as is commonly recognized it is of course anything but. The work manages to do this not because of any great innovation in the topics that it is covering but in the actual poetics of the work themselves. They present a sophisticated aesthetic sensibility which  provides space for the viewer to enter in and begin to ask questions of their own experience of looking at images. This is in my opinion the most important aspect of the work. 

In conclusion, I see a number of very rich areas of research and production that Mar has already begun to explore in her work. I would look forward to seeing how her aesthetics develop as she continues to make engaging and challenging situations to view and understand photography.

—Zebulong Zang