Return it to the public sphere

1. Does "return it to the public sphere" mean "to display it to the public"?

2. Does "as the living to the dead" mean "as a living person to a living person"?

3. Does "to those who would bear witness to us" mean "to those who would play the role of our witness"?

Context:

Felix, June 5th, 1994, stemmed from another set of works begun in the 1980s, a series of self-portraits in advertising formats. The photograph was taken by Bronson to deliberately distance himself from Felix, ‘to take his death and return it to the public sphere… to place my relationship with Felix, as the living to the dead, on view to a public, to those who would bear witness to us’.