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Memoria Abierta

Av. Corrientes 2560 2 E
(C1046AAQ) Ciudad de Buenos Aires
Argentina

Tel: (54-11) 4951-3559
Fax: (54-11) 4951-4870

South American Sites of Conscience Community

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Dialogues for Democracy

Memoria Abierta, along with all Coalition member sites, has designed a program called Dialogues for Democracy. The Dialogues for Democracy help visitors draw connections between the past and the present by using the histories of the sites to inspire new conversations and action on pressing contemporary issues.

Other Programs

Memoria Abierta encourages visitors to establish connections between the past and the present through the use of any records of what happened during the last military government in Argentina in order to encourage new conversations and actions on contemporary matters.

How we do it
Memoria Abierta works to create a space that acknowledges events that took place during the period of political violence and State terrorism in Argentina. It is a space for democratic learning through reflection on what happened in the past. Along these lines, we support the government initiative to build a “Space for Memory and the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights” on the property of the Army Mechanics School, where one of the majors clandestine detention centers (CDC) was placed during the dictatorship.
The kind of museum that Memoria Abierta supports is a place for the citizens of present and future generations to learn about recent history through eyewitness accounts, documents and objects. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of the events of past decades and to encourage museum visitors to make an active commitment to solving the country’s problems.
Through its projects, Memoria Abierta works to collect, organize and preserve all types of records that may contribute to the future museum’s collection. These documents (written and audiovisual) are from private collections, human rights organizations and publicly distributed materials.

Since 1999, Memoria Abierta has been organizing seminars and training workshops with local and foreign experts in order to encourage and broaden public debate on the future museum.
Memoria Abierta develops initiatives related to the preservation, creation and classification of archives that record the events from the years of State terrorism through the present in order to facilitate access to this information. It also supports and is taking part in the creation of a Museum of Memory and in activities that enrich the culture of democracy.

The work needed to reach our goals is done in the following areas: the Photographic Archive, the Oral Archive, the Documentary Heritage, and the Topography of Memory. Each of these areas contributes to the expansion of the sources that provide the cultural patrimony of Memoria Abierta.

The Documentary Heritage program coordinates the organization, preservation and dissemination of the archives of the human rights organizations composing Memoria Abierta and other private collections. The information is centralized in a collective catalog that can be consulted on Memoria Abierta`s web site in order to facilitate and expand its use.

The Photographic Archive collects images that give witness to the events that occurred during the military dictatorship and the history of the human rights movement. Its collections is made up of institutional, private and subject-specific collections organized in a catalog that systematizes the information contained in each photograph.

The Topography of Memory”>Topography of Memory program focuses on the territorial and spatial memories of State terrorism. It identifies, classifies, provides technical information and produces documentation on places linked to repression, resistance, tribute and commemoration. It suggests and designs tools aimed at broadening the visibility of these sites as vehicles for memory.

The Oral Archive produces testimonies about the social and political life of the 1960s and 70s, the rise of State terrorism, and the democratic transition in Argentina. It is composed of interviews recorded in audiovisual format with people whose lives were affected in various ways by illegal repression.

Regional Project

Memoria Abierta is strongly convinced that it is not possible to work for memory in isolation, and therefore all its initiatives and programs involve other groups and institutions with which performs various tasks. Among them:

  • It works for skill-development in groups and institutions in the region and promotes collaboration among them.
  • It strengthens the bonds between groups and institutions, providing them with assistance and advice on particular subjects.
  • It reinforces the links between identified human rights archives and organizes joint activities. At the same time, it gathers information on the different collections related to the years of State terrorism and records the collections in the “Human Rights Archives Census,” which can be consulted through the Memoria Abierta web page.
  • In cooperation with organizations and groups from different cities in Argentina and neighboring countries, it identifies participants and witnesses to State terrorism so that their testimony can enrich the knowledge of the events of those years.
  • It provides advice on the process of setting up developing groups for the purpose of restoring clandestine detention centers and other historic sites symbolic of the acts of repression and resistance during the last military dictatorship.