CASOS DE ESTUDIO

ESMA Memory Site Museum

JUSTICIA RESTAURATIVA

* Para referencias de imágenes, desplácese hasta la parte inferior de la página.

Author of case study: Greg Labrosse

Geopolitical location of space:
Libertador Ave 8151/8571
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Extant? Yes

Timeframe of RJ/TJ process in this space:

In use as a museum since 2015.

Background information:

On May 19th of 2015, the ESMA Memory Site Museum was inaugurated as a permanent museum and historical landmark. Principally, the museum is a site of culturally memory to safeguard the victims’ stories and to promote the non repetition of State terrorism. Given its status as judicial evidence, the museum has not altered the building from the state in which it was received. The museum’s content is created primarily through testimonies of survivors from the 1985 Trials of the Juntas and in the human rights trials restarted in 2004.

Is restorative and/or transitional justice actually taking place in this space?

Encounters between victims and perpetrators do not take place in this space. Its function is to preserve memory by honouring the victims’ stories and educating the general public on the events that took place during Argentina’s dictatorship. That said, it has the potential to become a place for restorative practices.

Who is the audience/the intended participants for this space?

The general public and researchers interested in the fields of political history, memory and transitional justice.

How or to what extent is this space public?

The museum is accessible to the general public from Tuesday to Sunday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Physical/factual description of space:

The ESMA Museum and Site of Memory operates in what used to be ESMA’s Officers’ Club, a 5,390 sq. m building inaugurated in 1948 to be a leisure and rest area for high-ranking Navy officers. The construction has an independent pavilion, three floors in comb design, basements, and a large attic. Located on one of the principle avenues in the city of Buenos Aires, the building of the Casino de Oficiales (Officer’s Quarters) was the nucleus of repression by the clandestine centre for detention, torture and extermination. Between 1976 and 1983, this building had two functions: a space of enjoyment and rest for higher-ranking Navy officers and, at the same time, a place for the confinement of the detained-disappeared.

The conservation of the Officers’ Quarters is a result of the work of human rights organisations, who fought for its preservation for more than 40 years. The same organisations that were the first to denounce the ESMA’s operation as a clandestine centre now promote all sorts of actions to preserve it.

Analytical description of space:

According to the museum website, the ESMA was an emblematic Clandestine Center in South America: “Due to its size, its location in an urban center, the co-existence of naval officers and the detained-disappeared, and its unique concentration features of imprisonment and extermination, its role transcended its own borders and transformed it into a heritage of outstanding universal value.”

Since the years of the dictatorship, the Officers’ Club building has been the object of many interventions and threats meant to erase the remaining traces of its former role as a clandestine center. Most of these changes occurred in 1979 in order to hide the clandestine center from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which visited Argentina and ESMA due to the accusations made by survivors and families of the victims.

Today, the ESMA is a space that denounces State terrorism and helps foster cultural memory. Its mission is to contribute to the knowledge, experience, and understanding of human rights violations committed by the Argentine State by promoting intra and intergenerational dialogue between the past, present and future. The Museum is on UNESCO’s list of candidates to potentially receive status as a World Heritage Site.

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Casos de estudio

Vanessa Sicotte

es autora, conferencista, columnista y podcaster en los campos de la arquitectura y las artes decorativas. Obtuvo su un pregrado en Comercio con especialización en Marketing de la Escuela de Negocios John Molson y actualmente se encuentra realizando su maestría en Historia del Arte en la Universidad de Concordia, Montreal. Además, estudió Psicología Industrial en Los Ángeles, California y es autora de dos libros sobre diseño (2015, 2018) publicados por Les Éditions Cardinal.

Marcela Torres Molano

es colombiana, candidata a doctorado en el Departamento de Historia del Arte de la Universidad Concordia. Tiene experiencia en diseño arquitectónico y activismo comunitario y es maestra en Construcción y Diseño Urbano de la Escuela de Arquitectura Bartlett, Londres, Inglaterra. Sus intereses se centran en el arte y movimientos sociales, el activismo colaborativo en escenarios de posconflicto, el arte colectivo y el arte producido en relación con el entorno construido.

Greg Labrosse

es candidato a doctorado en Humanidades de la Universidad de Concordia, enfocado en la agencia espacial, la estética social, las narrativas juveniles y las representaciones gráficas de la memoria urbana. Ha publicado sobre la relación entre los niños, el juego y el espacio público en Cartagena, Colombia. También ha trabajado como editor en proyectos literarios, entre ellos Territorio Fértil, que recibió el premio María Nelly Murillo Hinestroza de literatura afrocolombiana.

Dr Ipek Türeli

es profesora asociada y Catedrática de investigación de Canadá para la arquitectura de espacios de Justicia (Tier 2) en la Escuela de arquitectura Peter Guo-hua Fu de la Universidad de McGill University, Montréal, Canada. Se enfoca en la investigación de viviendas en entornos de bajos ingresos, diseño participativo, protesta civil, diseño urbano y paisajes y razas. Sus publicaciones incluyen el libro co-editado, Orienting Istanbul (2010) y el libro individual, Istanbul Open City (2018).

Dr Cynthia Imogen Hammond

es una artista profesora asociada y Catedrática de investigación de Canadá para la arquitectura de espacios de Justicia (Tier 2) en la Escuela de arquitectura Peter Guo-hua Fu de la Universidad de McGill University, Montréal, Canada. Se enfoca en la investigación de viviendas en entornos de bajos ingresos, diseño participativo, protesta civil, diseño urbano y paisajes y razas. Sus publicaciones incluyen el libro co-editado, Orienting Istanbul (2010) y el libro individual, Istanbul Open City (2018).

Luis C. Sotelo Castro

es el antiguo catedrático de Canadá en Historia Oral y performance (2016-2021), es profesor asociado al departamento de Teatro de la Universidad de Concordia y es codirector del Centro de Historia Oral e Historia digital (COHDS). Por medio de la financiación de Canada Foundation for Innovation, creo en 2018 el Laboratorio de actos de escucha , un centro líder de investigación y creación para el poder transformador de escuchar.