Moisés

“Photography is our exorcism.”
(Jean Baudrillard)

Thanatology asserts that not seeing the dead body of our beloved ones prevents us  from accepting their death. Contemplating the body of the deceased helps us overcome one of the most complex stages of grief: denial.

My twin sister and I were not allowed to see the dead body of our father. I never knew if it was because he committed suicide, because of Jewish religious beliefs, or both.

Not seeing him has made us doubt his death in many ways. The feeling that everything was a nightmare and the fantasy we both have that we are going to find him walking in the street or sitting in a cafe has accompanied us all these years.

I once read that fiction´s primary task is to favor evolution, forcing us to acknowledge and become the otherness around us. I think fiction can help us depict the endless reservoir of the unconscious, allowing us to represent our desires and fantasies.

Moisés is a typology of portraits of men in their 70´s, the age that my father would be today if he were alive.

Mariela Sancari (1976), born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, lives and works in Mexico City. Her work revolves around identity and memory and the way both interweave and are affected by each other, time and space. Recently included in the Ones To Watch 2015 BJP list, she has received numerous awards for her work. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Mexico City, Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Guatemala City, New York, Sao Paulo, Caracas, Fort Collins, Houston and Cork.