In Misfit (2017), the material is made of memory, of extractions of fragments and quotations of other works by the artist, but as familiar as we may be with Franco’s...
In Misfit (2017), the material is made of memory, of extractions of fragments and quotations of other works by the artist, but as familiar as we may be with Franco’s work, this vestige seems to be in reserve, as if the work were a docking support, a kind of host that allows itself to be affected by and simultaneously affects the nature of these materials. As theories of assemblage teach us, in this operation there is neither original nor copy, but rather citation as originating scene, where the citation impinges on the work’s defining characteristic. In a conversation with Heike Munder, Nicolás Franco eloquently expresses this operation: “I am interested in the technical processes that can modify the original material without the need for authorial operations. That is, how the technical transfer of information from one medium to another can shape the visual experience.” Material memory—material to the core, as we said—since, as it is expressed in Franco’s technical operations, memory is not a reminiscence rescued from the depths and brought to the surface, but rather something produced in the clash of techniques, figures, and procedures.