In the context of Social, Preventive, and Mandatory Isolation (ASPO) and divided in three online sessions, the Second 2020 Work Meeting between Museums and Spaces of Memory was held last September. The participants made their presentations regarding the issue of conservation and maintenance of these spaces.
Norberto Berner – Representative of the National Direction of Sites of Memory
“For the National Direction of Sites of Memory, these meetings are key events because they allow us to think of ways to prioritize our actions and policies. Particularly, these meetings are very important because they speak to us about an unknown issue that is nevertheless central. Also, because they help us keep building the candidacy of the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory to UNESCO, which has made a lot of progress since our last meeting.”
Alejandra Naftal – Director of the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory, CABA
“With each meeting, we prove that we really need to articulate our effort. For the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory these activities are essential, because they help us in the writing of the file, providing authenticity and legitimacy to it. We need to keep working to secure the nomination but also to create an Argentine model of Memory, Truth and Justice that has a special chapter about Sites of Memory. These meetings are a path towards that.”
Alberto Aldo Orsetti – Conservation Advisor for the National Direction of Sites of Memory
“Every intervention on a space with these characteristics must respect the original. It’s a big effort, because we have to consider that preservation is essential to sustain memory, and that it is reinforced by the material remains of each particular place. When we started to work in the former ESMA, for example, we had to be clear that the building got to us forty years late, so it was important to identify the marks that might have been left from that time. We did so with a team, patience and effort. But the work doesn’t end there: after carrying out the work, training and awareness raising are essential in every site and space, because no matter how well they work, we need to keep preserving them.”
Mónica Pinto – Head of the Restaurar Program at the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI)
“We are the only group in the country with the state-of-the-art technology applied to cultural assets. Our strong suit is our knowledge of the materials which shortens the research by a lot. And what materials are those? Textiles, paper, wood, paint, leather, X-ray methods to pry under the surfaces. Regarding our intervention in the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory, for example, we were brought in because the layers of old paint were starting to come off, unveiling inscriptions that we had to prove they were old and not made by the conservation team. We worked in different rooms, taking milimetric samples that we later observed with a magnifying glass and a microscope, and we felt very useful because we were able to shed light on some things. Among others, the fact that on every wall of the Capuchita room the layers were all arranged in the same way, which implied that they showed the same timeline and hadn’t been placed recently.”
Martín Capeluto – Heritage Manager at the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires
“I participated in ESMA intervention experiences in 2014 and 2015, with all the complexity that lies in attempting to synthesize the notions and parameters of conservation with those that restrict interventions because the building is a judicial evidence. We found detachments of pictoric and plaster layers, dirt, and rusty carpentry. In every case, the intervention aimed to consolidate these layers and preserve the historic strata that were found, so the building could keep talking to us and enable future research. All the work was agreed upon with different groups, including survivors, human rights organisms, specialists and court authorities.”
Camila Iglesias and Natalia Ferrero – Construction Project at the Former Clandestine Centers of La Perla, Campo de La Ribera and D2, among others, in the province of Córdoba
“We started to work from the beginning in what is today the Archive. The building was under a restriction order, so figuring out how to prevent from damaging the marks of what happened there was pretty much left to our criteria. Since there were no preexisting instructions, the first thing we did with the building was giving it time. We study it for four years, listening to survivors, going in with them, exploring it. Until we started the intervention with something we called a pickling work. That is: the building had been a house first and then it became a police precinct, so the police had placed a lot of things we started to remove. During that pickling process we found vaults, multiple layers of plaster and paint, adobe walls and Colonial technologies. We made a collective decision to display the entire history of the building. If you take the tour today, you will find that the different rooms exhibit the whole history of their walls, floors and ceilings.”
Laura Duguine – Former Club Atlético, CABA
“Just like other sites that were under restriction orders, our conservation work depends on the importance of each area in the building. In the case of the Atlético, we realized that we had to extend that preemptive conservation considering not only the site itself but also its surroundings. That is, we extended the preemptive conservation to the area around the Clandestine Center. And we did so with an interdisciplinary approach, because these types of spaces involve many, many discussions that exceed conservation disciplines, archeology, refurbishment and architecture, so any work that is done must take into account all these other elements.”
Valeria Contissa – Former Club Atlético, CABA
“In the case of Atlético, the archaeological remains are highly vulnerable, mainly as a result of the transformation it went through, from the very moment it was demolished and gave way to the layout of a highway, its buryal, the construction of columns that surround the Site and the earth slope that lies on top of it today. Faced with these grave events, and other smaller ones that nevertheless have daily effects, we conducted non-invasive studies and then planned concrete actions to prevent, for example, the water and vibrations from deteriorating the site. The first and most fundamental of these actions that we propose is related to the removal of the earth slope that is currently covering the larger part we still haven’t excavated.»
Silvina Durán – Former Club Atlético, CABA
“The Clandestine Center itself operated inside what used to be the basement of this building. Today, only 10 percent of that highly testimonial basement has been excavated, which means that there is still a lot left: a 90 percent of it, where 41 individual cells are located. The importance of the excavation is huge. That 10 percent alone has delivered more than a thousand archaeological findings that today are part of the Site and recognized by survivors as everyday objects of the former Clandestine Center, something that helped us a lot in the interpretation of those items. We have to be able to continue.”
Pablo Giorno – Department of Sites and Spaces of Memory of the Buenos Aires Province
“Our Department is quite new and from the beginning one of our central goals is the preservation of spaces. Since we started working we have come across different scenarios and we have been coordinating with local governments, universities and the National State to deliver possible solutions to different problems. In addition to the preservation of buildings, we also have a special interest in preserving archives. We are working hard in that direction.»
Cecilia Batemarco – MERCOSUR Institute of Public Policies on Human Rights
“Among the IPPDH principles related to the physical security of the sites, one of them establishes that the States must adopt any kind of measures to avoid the destruction and adulteration of the properties. In addition, they encourage technical studies to secure the different places and urge to physically secure them in order to obtain evidence that can be judicially assessed.”
Stella Gavilán – Conservation Technical Team within the National Department of Sites of Memory
“Our mission is the conservation and safeguarding of the former Clandestine Centers for Detention, Torture and Extermination. To this end, interdisciplinary work that incorporates an adequate perspective and achieves consensus on this particular way of intervention is essential. It is an experience you acquire on a day to day basis and learn in the workfield. In our case, we already address different cases through preventive and curative preservation actions, as well as restoration efforts. With all of them, our challenge is to guarantee access to these spaces that were not conceived as places to be visited and studied.»
Cristina Godoy and Daniel Giganti – Conservation Technical Team within the National Department of Sites of Memory
“We work with preventive conservation, which aims to minimize deterioration and losses by not directly intervening in the property. To give an example, we were in the Coronel Pagola 9th Infantry Regiment, Corrientes, and there was a large tree that was leaning on the fiber cement roof of the shed, so there was a risk of it falling. We managed to prune this tree, but since there was do-not-innovate restriction, we had to organize training sessions so that the municipal staff knew how to deal with it. They were told about heritage safeguard and the history of what happened there.»
Oscar Duarte and Jorge Cuello – Conservation Team within the National Department of Sites of Memory
“We work in the curative conservation phase. For example, some of the work we have done at the former ESMA was related to handcraft modifications of the tile roof, mainly in Capucha, Capuchita and Pecera. We use the word handcraft because we change every single tile to be able to comply with the least possible intervention of the heritage asset. It’s important to understand this and differentiate the work on these sites from any other similar one.»
Julián Gourdy – Conservation Technical Team within the National Department of Sites of Memory
“Another stage of our work is restoration, which is an exceptional case that is less sought after and intervenes directly on the property, with all the implications it involves. Also, in this instance, the effort must be consensual, performed in an interdisciplinary form and with prior notice to the court so they can authorize the intervention. In the case of the former ESMA, the restoration involved prior work to establish criteria between different disciplines.»
Ricardo Poggio and Marina Dutroc – Conservation Technical Team within the National Department of Sites of Memory
“We work with immaterial investigation. We joined the team to help enrich the context of the discovered materiality, constantly exchanging information with colleagues who work on the material aspects. Our task leads us to think about the chances of any hidden or unnoticed materials based on testimonies and investigations. It is a challenge because there is no discipline that has ever prepared us for this type of work. We have to find different tools to carry it out.»
Walter Silva – Former Olimpo, CABA
“The work in Olimpo was quite a challenge, because the place operated between August ’78 and January ’79, and after that it was transformed into an auto shop. In other words, during all that time it went through modifications, coats of paint, interior linings and all kinds of work. Doors suddenly became walls and walls became windows. So, the first thing that had to be done was to understand and compare what the testimonies said in this new configuration. In terms of conservation and recovery the first thing was to closely observe the rooms, then expand the testimonial map in order to name each sector and investigate every corner, and then begin to intervene on the walls where irregularities were spotted, to try to find material remains of the cells, for example. Little by little, we were able to verify that the measures the testimonies spoke about were similar to those that we started to find using these techniques.»
María Turull – ESMA Museum and Site of Memory, CABA
“In the experience of building the application file of the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory before UNESCO, we do not create new research or new conservation works but rather collect what already exists to demonstrate consistency in terms of the State’s institutional capacity of managing this place as a World Heritage Site. After analyzing these different stages of conservation, we find that there are four differentiated areas that concern its outstanding universal value: those in which conservation and restoration have a priority, others that are areas of conservation and re-functionalization, others related to maintenance, and others without intervention. As a result of this work, we have confirmed how important it is to find the keys to long-term conservation of all sites, not just the Museum. It was useful to provide an order and a framework to all the conservation actions that have been carried out and that helped the status of Site be what it is today. »
Antonella Di Vruno – Public Entity Area for Memory and the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights
“The Entity is undergoing a process of reviewing its objectives, and one of them is connected to the presentation of a master plan for the maintenance and conservation of the currently used spaces. We are paying attention to the historic buildings that played a role within the repressive system and need more care and work. Every institution using these buildings has to comply with protocols that respect the rule of not-altering the original conditions and we are getting strict with that. It is an arduous but necessary effort within our responsibility towards the 31 buildings located in the 17-hectare site.»
Sabrina Osowski – Public Entity Area for Memory and the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights
“We do extensive work on historical buildings, which are those that currently have a proven connection with repressive activities. The goals are connected to enhancing and preserving them, taking into account that many of them are in an advanced state of deterioration. The infirmary, for example, is falling apart, in a technically dilapidated state, and preserving the marks and traces of its use and role is urgent. The same goes for the auto workshop, whose enhancement is already underway, although delayed by the pandemic. In this case, the conservation criteria are related to stopping the deterioration, doing restoration work recording every change, indicating signs of use and time, and not altering the original structure. For its part, the intervention criteria will be carried out with supports, materials and operations that can mark the functions of the space, yet always integrating the grammar of a car repair shop. »
Wenceslao Cascallares – Public Entity Area for Memory and the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights
“The team received the property in 2010. At that time, there had been no maintenance or intervention for at least six years, or at least there are no records of that. Between then and now, some works were made contemplating the change of paradigm, going from a closed space to an open, accessible space. This re-functionalization of the property based on public visits was a priority axis of the work, along with the maintenance of roofs to prevent deterioration caused by water, infrastructure renewal and new demands that resulted from the new uses, such as new fiber optics and wiring. We engaged in all these works in parallel, so that each building could demonstrate its new value as an institution.»
María Julia Portas – Former Infierno de Avellaneda, Buenos Aires province
“In March 2016 we were able to start walking through this space that the Buenos Aires Police had occupied. They had left everything broken, without electricity, water or gas. Thinking about how to face the work without a budget and with a reluctant State was a complex thing. We considered many strategies and we searched for a local ally to do the first technical scans, that is how we signed an agreement with the National Technological University of Avellaneda. That institution contributed with a technical team that came to work in the space and, based on a thermographic tracking, we surveyed all the spaces and accounted for those differences we found between the testimonies we had and the spaces that we walked through every day. Still, despite that work, we still have several debts to the building. One is to be able to stop the passage of time and preserve it in the best possible terms. The other is connected to establishing a museum that enables a chance to move through it not only in words but also through its material elements.»
Zulema Chester – Former El Chalet (Hospital Posadas), El Palomar, Buenos Aires province
“In 2005, El Chalet was declared a Site of Memory, giving way to a phase that was different from previous years when the building had been used as a primary school and the headquarters of the UBA School of Nursing. But power disputes systematically delayed the process of conservation and operation of the space. In 2016, thanks to the intervention of Alberto Orsetti, who carried out an analysis with a subsequent diagnosis of the deterioration of the building and recommended conservation actions, an agreement was signed between the National Archive of Memory and hospital authorities. Yet, once again, the lack of funding halted the works. Today, the Secretary of Human Rights resumed its commitment, although the pandemic caught us in the middle. We are hopeful that this conservation effort will begin.»
Marta Argañaraz – National Commission for Memory, Truth and Justice of Zona Norte, Buenos Aires province.
“In 2016 a private company moved into the premises of the former ASTARSA shipyard, where La Anguilera is located, and worked hard to preserve it. What we decided was to have the coordinates and geographic reference of the current Site of Memory clearly defined in order to concretely move forward with our claims against the Tigre City Hall and the company that was carrying out construction work to build a gated neighborhood. We asked for the help of the School of Architecture and architect Majul, who toured La Anguilera and recorded the geographical location points that helped us to continue defending the place and request a court hearing. I think recovering and preserving places of memory is important but it’s also important to recover and preserve what our fellow activists who disappeared there fought for. Their militant demands to transform reality are still alive and it is up to us to preserve and follow them through, because that is precisely what the right wing wants to erase.»
Bibiana Gómez Cabrera – Direction of Human Rights of Morón, Buenos Aires province
“The current Mansión Seré Site of Memory had been burned and abandoned until the return of democracy, so it has no structure. A partnership with a company was promoted to try and observe the anomalies of the vaulted ceiling through excavations. Instead of fully revealing the surface that had to be excavated, the work was done in stages. The interesting thing was that suitable conservation protocols were used so that local residents could visit the site even when these works were being carried out.»
Ramiro Bavastro – National Department of Sites of Memory
“In every story about the different spaces and sites we find a resistance, sometimes from the State, sometimes from a civil organization, but always with the goal of caring and preserving them. Up until very recently, attempts were made to curtail this and, even in the cases in which they successfully destroyed material properties, we have always been able to intervene and tell the story of those places, and this is a fundamental thing.»
Mauricio Cohen Salama – ESMA Museum and Site of Memory, CABA
“All this effort to preserve the different spaces and sites makes it clear to us that, rather than a starting point, the interest in heritage is the ultimate goal of these interventions, because the actual starting point was the search for Memory, Truth and Justice. Generally, historical heritage has other dynamics. Here instead we are talking about a hostile, uncomfortable, annoying heritage. In this sense, the path is different, its special feature is that it is part of creating social consensus. We also have to start thinking about how these places are going to continue when we are gone, how future generations will regard them.»
Mayki Gorosito – ESMA Museum and Site of Memory, CABA
“The notion of an ESMA Museum and Site of Memory candidacy to the UNESCO World Heritage List is to contribute to strengthen the work and commitment of every site and space, and this is reflected in the journey they shared through these amazing conservation experiences.»