Peru: Construction of Lugar de la Memoria

Here's a short clip of the construction of the Lugar de la Memoria in Peru.

Peru: Memory museum nearly finished

Here's some progress to start the year: Fernando Carvallo, director of the Peruvian memory museum (now officially called the Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social), has announced that construction work will be completed on 15 January 2013. The shell of the four-storey building in Lima will then be finished and can be fitted out, a process which will take several months.

Work started back in November 2010 and has been partially financed by Germany.

The building will consist of a basement, an auditorium on the first floor, the exhibition about the violence of the 1980s and 1990s on the second and third floors, and a terrace on the fourth floor.

"Access to the second to fourth floors will take place via a ramp and the visit will go from bottom to top, upwards. The idea is that the visitor will feel that they are passing from darkness to light, from horror to the hope of reconciliation in a democratic society," explained Carvallo.


Anuncian que obras en el Lugar de la Memoria terminarán el 15 de enero (La Republica)

Paraguay: New memory museum

A ceremony was held on Friday in Abraham Cué, a police station in San Juan Bautista, Paraguay, which functioned as a detention/torture centre in 1976. The timing was arranged for the 36th anniversary of the "Pascua Dolorosa" (Painful Easter), a wave of repression which occurred in Paraguay in April 1976.

Abraham Cué was declared the second memory museum in the country in an event attended by representatives of the interior ministry and victims' relatives, among others. However, none of the news articles I've read give details of the contents of the museum or when it is due to open (or if, indeed, it is already open).

h/t Museo Memorial de la Resistencia Dominicana

Paraguay: convierten ex centro de tortura en museo (Terra)
Abraham Cué, como sitio de memoria histórica (ABC Paraguay)

Argentina announces Malvinas museum

Argentine president Cristina Kirchner has announced plans for a museum about the Falklands/Malvinas war, to be based in the Museo de la Memoria on the former ESMA site. Members of the Madres, Abuelas, Malvinas veterans and family members were present for the announcement. The president also stressed Argentina's "great commitment to peace".

The plans for a new museum of course fits in with the 30th anniversary of the war which has focused attention on it recently. The issue is also quite appropriate for the ESMA; I'd just like to see more consideration of the war in its dictatorship context, which generally seems to get lost.

“Un compromiso por la paz” (Pagina/12)
Argentina to open Falklands museum, says Fernandez (BBC)
Argentina to open museum dedicated to Falklands (AP)
Argentina announces a museum for the ARA Belgrano marines killed during the Falklands conflict (Mercopress)

Peru: New head of memory museum - and new name as well

After the resignation of artist Fernando de Szyszlo, the current president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Diego Garcia-Sayan, has been named the new head of the commission charged with setting up Peru's new memory museum in Miraflores, Lima.

Peru Appoints Garcia-Sayan to Lead Memory Museum Commission (Peruvian Times)

In addition, a new name for the project, initially called the "museum of memory" and then the "place of memory", has been announced: "Lugar de la memoria, la tolerancia y la inclusion social" (Place of memory, tolerance and social inclusion).

While tolerance and social inclusion are certainly worthy causes, this messing around with the name makes me a bit weary. For Spanish speakers, the blog Genocidio Ayacucho explains very clearly why it is uncomfortable with these changes and I have to agree. Come on Peru, keep focused, give us a museum and stop tinkering with the name.

Oficializan denominación de 'Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social' (La Republica)

Peru: EU donates money to memory museum

The European Union has pledged two million euros to finance the construction of Peru's place of memory (Lugar de la Memoria), which is being built in Lima to commemorate the internal conflict of 1980-2000. The agreement was signed on 13 October in the foreign ministry. Present were Peruvian foreign minister Rafael Roncagliolo, head of the high-level commission for the memory museum, Fernando de Szyszlo, head of the delegation of the European Union in Peru, Hans Alldén, and representative of the UN Development Programme Rebeca Arias.

Alldén said that experience had shown the European countries that "without memory, a country has no future". Roncagliolo expressed regret at de Szyszlo's intention to resign from the museum commission for personal reasons but said that the museum's loss would be art's gain. 86-year-old de Szyszlo has said he wishes to concentrate on painting.

La UE donará dos millones de euros para el Lugar de la Memoria de Perú (EFE)

Unión Europea apoya Lugar de la Memoria para consolidar reconciliación en Perú (Andina)

Cancillería evaluará a comisión del Lugar de la Memoria (El Comercio)

Peru, EU & UN Sign Agreement for Memory Museum (Peruvian Times)

Peru: Lugar de la memoria update

I'm pleased to see that plans are moving ahead for the Lugar de la memoria (Place of Memory) in Lima, Peru.

- The bidding process for the construction of the museum is getting underway. The tender was announced last week and is due to run until 18 March.

- Vargas Llosa has said that the museum will be "a space of reconciliation".

- The museum commission, led by Fernando de Szyszlo, has said that the museum will be ready "by the end of the year". De Szyszlo has also said that Keiko Fujimori is the only one of the presidential candidates whom he considers likely to oppose the project.

- The Lugar now also has its own website, which is already looking good in Spanish (the other language flags are currently just there for decoration, but let's give them some time...).

Peru: Lugar de la Memoria

Here's an interview with Fernando Carvallo, who is involved with the development of the Lugar de la Memoria in Peru. He discusses the point of the project and its link with the photographic exhibition Yuyanapaq (Spanish only).

Peru: More on Design for Lugar de la Memoria

A couple more articles about the winning project for the design of the Lugar de la Memoria in Lima, including positive remarks about the transparency of the competition and the results.

Un lugar para la memoria (La Primera, via CNDDHH)
Aqui vivira nuestra memoria (El Comercio, here via CNDDHH, here in PDF, also source of image above)

Latin America: Memory Museums

At their best, these museums are an attempt to inoculate societies against their basest inclinations. "We must consolidate a democratic culture that can save us from fanaticism and drive home [the idea] that terror cannot be combated with terror," says Mario Vargas Llosa, the novelist who heads the planning group for the Peruvian museum. The danger is that remembering turns into a political banner, reviving historical animosities and institutionalizing an ideological battle over who controls memory. "In Latin America this is not a disinterested process, much less an effort to work at forgiveness," says Brazilian political analyst Amaury de Souza. "It's a struggle over who gets to write history."

Newsweek has a comparative article on the various commemorative museum projects underway in Latin America. I could quibble on a few points (plus the word 'memoria' is sporting an additional accent!), but it's good to see a piece like this, and with a nice photo too.

The Politics of Memory Museums (Newsweek)

Peru: Architects for Museum of Memory Announced

The winning proposal for Peru's Lugar de la Memoria was announced today.

The international jury, consisting of architects Kenneth Frampton (UK), Rafael Moneo (Spain), Francesco Dal Co (Italy), José García Bryce (Peru) and Wiley Ludeña (Peru), selected the design submitted by Paris and Lima-based Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse (see their website here).

Head of the commission for the museum, Mario Vargas Llosa, stated that the project was chosen for the functionality of its structure, sobriety of its design, and harmony with the surrounding area. Barclay explained that visitors will travel from the lower part of the space, where the tragedy of the victims will be emphasised, to the upper areas with views over the ocean and a focus on liberation and reconciliation. Building is now slated to begin in three months.

Construccion de Lugar de la Memoria se iniciara en tres meses (andina)
Eligen dos arquitectos para construir el Lugar de la Memoria (RPP)

Argentina: Museo de Arte y Memoria

The Museo de Arte y Memoria in La Plata now has an excellent website.

Chile: Museum of Memory

Via Dirty Wars and Democracy, I was pleased to find a first-hand account of a visit to Santiago's new museum of memory, complete with pictures.

I find the walls of photos of the disappeared particularly striking, and I'm not the only one.

Peru: Germany Happy with Museum of Memory

The German ambassador in Peru, Christoph Müller, said that his country, which is financing the museum of memory, welcomes the consensus which is developing to make the project a reality.

He emphasised the results of the recent meeting between Commander General of the Army, Otto Guibovich, and author Mario Vargas Llosa, who is heading the project. He was also pleased by the appointment between the Defense Minister Rafael Rey and Vargas Llosa. "I'm thrilled that a consensus is finally being formed within Peruvian society with regard to the museum of memory. This consensus seems to be going in the right direction," noted Müller.

"We are happy about the move towards a consensus because obviously, we were aware of the previous controversy. It's clear that to overcome such a sensitive topic there's a need for a basic consensus from all the sectors of society involved to achieve reconciliation," added the diplomat, who then said that the German government had not been involved in the initial concepts for the site; however, he remarked that "as observers we are delighted that a shared concept for the museum is now being discussed."

(Alemania contenta con Museo de la Memoria, La Primera, 15/02/2010, trans mine)

Peru: Museum of Memory Update

The 'Museo de la Memoria' will now, apparently, be named 'Lugar de la Memoria' (place or site of memory).

"The word museum is associated with an institution that preserves the past and we want the "Site of Memory" to be a reconstruction of the violence in Peru, giving a more worthy, fairer, more accurate view of the historical facts", said Vargas Llosa in a press conference.
(trans mine from El Museo de la Memoria en Peru cambia de nombre por Lugar de la Memoria)

The term is, of course, familiar to those interested in memory studies, coined as it was by French historian Pierre Nora. Nora's lieux de memoire are not necessarily actual places, but can be objects or ideas. According to Nora, however, these sites of commemoration are only needed because 'true' memory has been lost.

Modern memory is, above all, archival. It relies entirely on the materiality of the trace, the immediacy of the recording, the visibility of the image. What began as writing ends as high fidelity and tape recording. The less memory is experienced from the inside the more it exists only through its exterior scaffolding and outward signs-hence the obsession with the archive that marks our age, attempting at once the complete conservation of the present as well as the total preservation of the past.
(Nora, 'Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire', 1989, p. 13)

One can somehow sympathise with this view when thinking about the setting up of memorial exhibitions. But I can only assume that Vargas Llosa and his fellow commissioners do not regard the act of collecting and displaying material about the past with quite the same suspicion that Nora does, or they would hardly be bothering in the first place. It remains to be seen, however, how the new museum will engage with the thorny business of memory and official history in a post-conflict society.

Vargas Llosa is making a start by meeting with the commanding general of the Peruvian army, Otto Guibovich, today. Guibovich, naturally, wants to promote military interests in the potential contents of the museum. The meeting is strictly behind closed doors, and it remains to be seen what will come of such discussions.

Vargas Llosa se reune este jueves con general Guibovich (La Republica)

News/Blogging Round-Up

I have missed most memory-related news items over the past week, but here is a small selection:

Chile
The Legacy of the Pinochet Dictatorship (Memory, Amnesia and Politics)
Pinochet could have received $292 million dollars in loans from Chilean government, unclear if paid or repaid (Chile From Within)

Colombia
Who Cares About the Victims of Forced Displacement? (IPS)

El Salvador
Remembering "la Matanza" of 1932 (Tim's El Salvador Blog)

Guatemala
The Attack on the Spanish Embassy (Guatemala Solidarity Network)

Peru
Vargas Llosa anuncia que museo se llamara ahora Lugar de la Memoria (APRODEH)

Chile: Museum of Memory

Although it still doesn't contain much detail on the actual exhibits, here's the most in-depth English language article I've yet seen on the new Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile.

Chile's Turning Point (The Nation, via unredacted)

Chile/Peru Round-up

Fifteen suspected Shining Path rebels arrested; Peruvian officer killed (Peruvian Times)

Mario Vargas Llosa: "El Peru debe seguir el ejemplo chileno para el Museo de la Memoria (El Comercio, via CNDDHH)

Chilean Museum Raises Pinochet's Ghost before Vote (NY Times)

Chile opens Museum of Memory for dirty war victims (AP)

Chile: Inauguration of Museum of Memory

Today Chile opens its Museo de la Memoria. As The Santiago Times points out, 11 is a highly significant number in Chilean history:

Today, Monday, January 11 2010, President Michelle Bachelet, who leaves office on 11 March, will inaugurate her last large gift to the Chilean people: El Museo de la Memoria, which documents human rights violations during the rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet (11 September 1973 – 11 March 1990).

The article also points out that there has been controversy about the focus of the museum (readers of this blog will easily be able to ask - when isn't there?).

The Interamerican Commission of Human Rights (CIDH) approves. And Vargas Llosa is there too, apparently - which makes sense as he's supposed to be installing a similar project in Peru. Plus he's sticking his nose in another country's elections so it's all very convenient.

That aside, I'm looking forward to reviews of the museum.

Opening Chile's Human Rights' 'Memory Museum' A Showdown of the Elevens (Santiago Times)
Chile: inauguran Museo en homenaje a victimas de la dictadura (Univision)

News Round-Up

Brazil
Brazil's Human Rights Minister threatens to resign over controversial bill (Mercopress)
Brazil truth commission arouses military opposition (BBC)

Colombia
Salvaging Corpses at a Bend in the River - this is an amazing, if gruesome story (NY Times)

Guatemala
Naming the "Disappeared" (IPS, and see more on the "Mi nombre no es XX" campaign here)

Uruguay
Via Espacio de memoria, the Uruguayan Centro Cultural Museo de la Memoria is holding a competition for exhibits