Verónica Losantos, SCREEN MEMORIES, 2016

Photography, a medium still informed by a belief in “that is the way it was,” seems to be the ideal means of capturing a memory. It serves as an external basis for recollection, makes the event portrayed meaningful, and also documents the fact that something is worthy of being remembered at all. Yet how reliable is photography in conveying memory? How can this topic be presented photographically, and how can the process of remembering be examined artistically? In her series screen memories, Verónica Losantos processes her own incomplete memories of her absent father. According to Sigmund Freud, these so-called screen memories are an attempt to overcome our unconscious resistance when reproducing the content of memory. Losantos makes artistic use of this method by re-enacting missing memories photographically. Blending reality with fiction, and leaving the interpretation up to the viewer, Verónica Losantos calls the traditional criteria of the truth of photography into question.