Mapping the symbols: interventions, disputes and transgressions in the Space for Memory, ex ESMA

Abstract

In this article we analyze the processes by which the different social actors that manage the Space for Memory (ex ESMA) installed the first visual devices inside and at the surroundings of the site in its turning into a memory site. These interventions are analyzed as ways in which the territorial marks are interwoven with the applications of the place, understanding these practices as they shape the disputes over the uses of the site and its material appropriation. Through the analysis of these practices it is possible to understand how the place is semantized, what is intended to communicate through them, what organisms manage them and what institutional dynamics are activated at the site for their realization, while their study gives us some guidelines of how the power is distributed spatially within the premises, since, from a territorial perspective, the placement of symbols shows the spatial organization of the site, its conflicts, overlappings and disputes. Among the symbols addressed are the first informative billboards, murals, sténcils, exhibitions, monuments and disruptive architectures that are installed as true memory mediation devices.