MANUS: The Sensitive Brutality of Memory

A Project by Oriana José Ramírez Dugarte

MANUS is a photographic series marked by profound emotional intensity and formal rigor, redefining the representation of the human hand and granting it a place of exceptional symbolic and poetic power. The work breaks away from traditional portrait conventions, focusing instead on spontaneous gestures—subconscious movements that silently unveil the identity and emotional complexity of each individual.

The Intimate Origin and Voice

The project is born from a visceral experience of fragmentation and displacement. As a Venezuelan migrant, Oriana confronted the absence of her dispersed family, realizing the imperative need to preserve and honor the hands that have molded her life. MANUS is a living archive of memory and presence, a cartography of the soul through the skin that transcends the autobiographical to meditate on loss, belonging, and the conservation of the intangible.

Brutalist Aesthetics and Formal Declaration

The work establishes a deep dialogue with urgent and universal themes. This conceptual vision is materialized through a bold, brutalist aesthetic. The photographs are presented in striking, large-scale formats, executed in a rigorous black and white. A dramatic high contrast is used, enhancing the texture, lines, and scars of each hand, thereby reinforcing an atmosphere of timelessness.

Each gesture, unique and unrepeatable, is elevated into a powerful symbol of love, labor, creation, and resilience.

Scope and Recognition

With a trajectory that has reached emblematic cultural settings in Rome, Bali, Athens, and Santiago de Chile, MANUS extends its global reach. This curatorial act—the gaze dedicated to the hands—constitutes a profoundly political and poetic gesture, inviting the viewer to rediscover humanity through its most silent, yet fundamental, manifestation.