Museum of Memory, Rosario

This space is perhaps the most difficult site to categorize due to it having an important spatial element that is tied to the dictatorship, but one that is not fully utilized or accentuated by the museum. Located on the opposite corner of Plaza San Martin from El Pozo, this closeby mansion was the location of the 2nd Army Corps and worked as the operational and logistical focus of the dictatorship in the region. 

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Though a municipal decree ordered it to become a memory museum in 1999, mismanagement meant that it would instead become a Hard Rock Cafe-style restaurant, leading to legal battles and expropriation which meant it would not open as a museum until late 2010.

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During the interim, the museum operated without its own space with a focus on intangible cultural and artistic representations related to state terrorism, revealing how memory could be best recovered away from rigid collections, as argued by Emilse Hidalgo.

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During my visit in October 2024, I found that this approach to memorialization had not changed, even years after they had reclaimed their space. Perhaps it was influenced by its journey before owning its artistic space, the restaurant's renovations killing any desire for preservation before they could be voiced, or El Pozo's close location meaning that they could tell that compelling spatial story so that the Museo de la Memoria didn't feel like they needed to.

 

Whatever the reason for its programming, the museums focus is clearly on memorialization through artistic expression and not preservation in a time capsule.