Sofía Gallisá Muriente interrogates gaps in the historical record of Puerto Rico, where decay and neglect have degraded institutional archives, and political activities remain shrouded in secrecy – where history has largely become rumour. While many see archival gaps as something to be filled, she has learned to resist that colonial urge, instead standing in archival absences to create something new.
In Venice, Gallisá Muriente presents a selection of works under the title Observatorio de lagunas (Lacuna Observatory). (Laguna means both “lagoon” and “a gap in memory”.) Guaniquilla Luminosa (2023) is composed of Super 8 images of an inlet in Cabo Rojo, a region whose Jurassic-era rocks are believed to be fragments of ancient oceanic crust. In Últimas luces/Last Lights (2024), Gallisá Muriente documents the projection of doubly exposed 16mm celluloid onto the walls of her deceased grandmother’s home. The layering of the doubly exposed images reveals an intimate, unstable and partially fictional archive, reminding us that memory is shaped by selection, omission and imagination. Ciné Inútil/Useless Cinema I-IX (2023-2024) is a series of stills from films shot by policemen surveilling leftist groups in Puerto Rico. The images are often overexposed, out of focus and shaky, while surveillance notes are incomplete, fabricated or full of banalities. The oppressor’s failure, in the artist’s hands, is recognised as a small victory.
—Marina Reyes Franco
