Memories on the move: transnational networks in the constitution of sites of memory and conscience in Latin America

• Grant number: 21/08331-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: December 01, 2021
• End date: November 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Renato Cymbalista
• Grantee: Rebeca Lopes Cabral
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/04965-2 - Memories on the move: transnational networks in the constitution of sites of memory and conscience in Latin America., BE.EP.DR

Abstract

In this project, we propose to analyze how places that worked as centers of detention, torture andextermination during the Latin American dictatorships operate, today, as instruments of representation of the memories of violence, from a transnational network perspective. The project has a double anchorage: the International Coalition of Sites of conscience (CISC), a global network focused on the articulation of sites of memory and conscience, and three sites that compose it: the Resistance Memorial (Brazil), the Ex-Escuela Mecánica de la Armada (Argentina), the Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi (Chile). We propose to look the relationship between the Latin American and the coalition. From these objects, analyze how distinct and distant pasts, but historically linked, can merge and provide the creation of new repertoires and strengthening mechanisms that change the physical spaces. We also problematize asymmetries and competitions intrinsic to memorialization dynamics. After all, memories are disputed and plural constructions; and the spaces areproducts and agents of the social disputes that also transform them. In the research we aim to illuminate ways of strengthening and improvement for similar institutions; and complement in an innovative way to the field of architecture and urbanism, as well as to the field of memory studies.