“Image Remains” is a series of works primarily composed of videos featuring the “Angel of History,” a character that appears in the posthumous writing of Walter BENJAMIN titled “On the Concept of History (Theses on the Philosophy of History).” The Angel, facing backward, goes across a series of image processing upgrades over a century. In the process, the Angel slips through the systematic management and becomes omnipresent as countless multimodal copies. But she is still unable to completely break free from the system. Then, to learn how to see future demise, the Angel goes into a cave where her vision does not function at all.

Protocols and standards in image processing technology are a system for distributing images appropriately. However, its establishment is not necessarily based on rational judgment, and some compromise is unavoidable in the process of balancing conflicting requirements. In today's world where AI continues to evolve rapidly, in some cases, the criteria for establishment may even prioritize usefulness for machines rather than humans. MENKMAN aims to uncover the compromises hidden inside such technology through artistic production and research.

In 2025, a painting by Paul KLEE titled “Angelus Novus” (1920), which BENJAMIN referred to when describing the appearance of the Angel of History, was exhibited at the Bode Museum in Berlin. On this occasion, a special context was embedded in the Angel. The Angel Remains, composed of a burgundy-red wall and a framed photograph, is a work created based on this background. The color and size of the wall is in accordance with the Bode Museum’s exhibition specifications.