Memento Vivere

Memento Vivere, Latin expression meaning “remember to live”, is a 9-foot metaphorical painting, a Magnetic Moving Opera House. 

Inside this theatrical narrative painting, The Skeleton, protagonist of this story, transitions from being a prop under the control of the tyranny of the Director, through the  pursuit of an unscripted role. Finally becoming a living being who is able to get back its essence, its sense of belonging.

Composed of 48 wooden frames each with a mounted metal sheet. Every component of the theatre’s modular structure is a hand painted wood piece with mounted magnets on the back side.

The modular nature of this installation, allowing for constant reconfiguration, creates multiple narrative and pictorial possibilities, itself a grand metaphor from the human collective imagination. But a metaphor for what exactly?

Project guided by David Sandlin, Riccardo Vecchio and Paul Buckley advisory.

—

In memoriam of Francisco Ferro, my first best friend.

Colorful geometric artwork resembling a building on a white wall, with wooden crates and art supplies on the floor.
Person placing a wooden block with pink edges onto a colorful wall of blocks with letters and symbols.
A colorful artwork on a wall made of stacked boxes with silhouettes of various figures. In front are open wooden crates and scattered art supplies, including papers, cutting tools, and colorful printed materials, on a brown floor.
Open wooden box filled with colorful paper cards and paper cutouts with writing, along with some string and a talking dog figurine. A blue card with a black object is on the dark speckled surface nearby.
Colorful abstract art made of small blocks with various patterns and silhouettes, including a door-like opening, snake, animal, and human figures.
Close-up of colorful wooden alphabet blocks arranged in a grid, featuring various letters and vibrant colors such as pink, blue, green, orange, and black.
Colorful wooden blocks painted with various illustrations including a gymnast, a girl with a skirt, a person with a backpack, and a person in a running pose, arranged in a geometric pattern.
Colorful abstract art mural composed of many small tiles with various geometric shapes, silhouettes, and patterns in bright red, green, blue, purple, black, and white.
Colorful wall tiles with doodle-style illustrations of people doing yoga and climbing ladders, patterned with pink, white, green, blue, and orange colors.
Colorful wooden alphabet blocks arranged on a wall with visible letter houses.
Open sketchbook with colorful painted squares on a wooden table with metal corner protectors, against a white wall.
Open book displaying various black silhouette characters and objects on a wooden table.
Stack of eviction notices on a wooden surface.
Multiple colorful tickets with various designs, text, and symbols layered on top of each other.

Brooklyn Public Library

Stills