Brief / Concept

Memoria Historica de la Alameda is a site-specific and participatory project dealing with the Chilean memory and in particular with the period going from Salvador Allende democracy (1970) to the end of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship (1990) during which the street became the scene of different events of oppression and resistance.
La Alameda de las Delicias is the centre of Santiago’s social, economical and political life. Since its foundation, in the beginning of the 19th century, this street has represented the quintessential public space, been from time to time a place for strolling, a scenario of urban riots and guerrilla, of huge political manifestations, religious processions and sport parades until its current function as backbone for public transport and trades. This main boulevard is the source of a virtually infinite amount of personal and institutional memories.
MHA aims at putting in short-circuit the Avenue’s landscape with the events marking its history, and bringing to consciousness a remarkable memory in a nation where the scars of the history are still visible. Contents included in MHA were thought to achieve a poetic interpretation of the urban space, working as a consciousness catalyst of the historical, political and social dynamics forming the urban network.

Design Process

Memoria Historica de la Alameda was conceived and developed during the “Aesthetics for a Calm Technology” workshop held at the Arts department at the Universidad de Chile. Students from the course participated in the production of contents conducing extensive archives research, street interviews and recording personal memories about Alameda boulevard. Finally, the contents were edited, translated in Flash files (to be displayed on the PDA handset) and geo-referenced to specific locations of Alameda de las Delicias boulevard.

Memoria Historica de la Alameda was presented at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Santiago during the official inauguration of Creative Commons licenses in Chile (July 2005). During those days, the project was deployed with several participants that wore the Cultural Luggage and explored the geo-referenced contents along Alameda de las Delicias.

Experience video

Brief / Concept

"Aquì me acuerdo que..." (Here I remember that...) is a parallel intervention that proceeded the deployment of Memoria Historica de la Alameda. In the night between the inauguration (July 1st, 2005), participants of MHA project covered Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins (Alameda) with posters saying "Aquì me acuerdo que...". The action was intended to involve people casually encountering such posters in a recollection of fragments of memory connected with certain places of the city. Similarly to MHA, "Aquì me acuerdo que..." implies citizens leaving their tangible sign of own memories along the street. The sign enrich the streets as a shared textual and spatial narration.