게르하르트 리히터(Gerhard Richter, 1932∼ )는 1960년대 중반부터 자신이 수집하거나 직접 촬영한 사진, 인쇄물 삽화, 스케치로 구성한 <아틀라스 Atlas>를 제작하고 있다. 리히터는 자신의 거대한 트라우마인 나치 정권과 2차 세계대전의 흔적부터 가족과 아이들의 따뜻한 추억까지 <아틀라스>에 저장해왔다. 처참했던 과거를 의도적으로 망각 하려는 기억 위기에서 잠재된 기억을 소환해내려는 아카이브 열병이 모순적으로 발생했 고 <아틀라스>가 시작되었다. <아틀라스>는 리히터의 기억을 저장하는 매체로서 존재 하지만 망각과 기억 사이, 해체와 결합 사이, 은폐와 폭로 사이를 넘나들며 이중적인 특징을 보이고 있다. 모호하고 이중적인 형태로 담겨 있지만 <아틀라스>에 분명히 존재하고 있는 리히터의 기억과 트라우마의 흔적들은 리히터가 살아온 복잡한 역사의 소용돌이 속에서 구축한 자신만의 생존 방식이라 볼 수 있을 것이다.

This paper is to examine Gerhard Richter’s“ Atlas” as an artistic symbol of the memory archive with the theme of aporia which is one of the characteristics of the modern art.“ The Atlas” which is composed of 800 huge tafels reflects Richter’s perspective where we can recognize his psychological and work’s source. It is obtained through examining 10,000 pictures, and is also a unique document that shows the life of the artist. The contents of“ the Atlas” have been added and expanded continuously, which make it said to be finished, but it still remains as a non-complete work. According to Derrida, the desire for an archive is an illness that reaches for the death and is a part of the desire of finding and possessing the beginning or origin of everything. Derrida realized through the archive fever in“ Moses and Monotheism”, Freud’s desire of possessing the beginning of everything. This fever is to be seen in situations where death is urged. Therefore, the archive fever is a journey towards the death. The desire to make an archive comes from the inquiry of repeating something, and according to Freud, this desire for repetition can be seen as going towards death. When Derrida was studying Freud’s“ Moses and Monotheism”, he did not overlook Freud’ s archive fever. This has a connection to Richter’s archive fever in“ the Atlas”, reflected in the war and ideology due to the repetitive compulsion of trauma. Derrida said that the reason for Richter examining the same theme repetitively was the archive fever and is at the same time a movement towards the death. Consequently, trauma exists through the archive, and the archive continues through the trial of finding the beginning. Nothing can stop this except the death and that is why death is to be found at the end of the journey. This paper examines Richter’s memory archive in the three directions. First, I illustrate the repetitive compulsion shown in“ the Atlas” and resulted from trauma in an aporaic way to concentrate only on the archive, and examine the aporaic narrative of the author. Second, I examine the various methods of different modern artists to express their “after death memory” when they overcame their trauma. Finally, I examine the aporaic method that is illustrated through the process of fusing and transforming photographs, which shows the objective truth with art. In other words, I examine the method that is exposed between the photographic truth and artistic creation.