Open Archives of Latin-American Cities: imaginaries, etnographies and memory (OALAC)

We understand archives as being constituted by the selection of patrimony, political practices, ethnographic experiences, and acts of imagination. Archives both challenge the city and are created by it. From this perspective they are not only repositories of the past preserved in documents, artifacts, collections, and monuments selected as heritage, over time. Nor are they restricted to the architectural palimpsests of urban spatiality. Shaped in dialogue with contemporary media, archives are also recast by the projections and expectations of the future generated by multiple agents.

The notion of "open archive" calls for experiential, discursive, aesthetic, and political interaction about the imaginaries and repertoires that are appropriated, invented, and disputed by city dwellers. We emphasize the vitality of the archive as an interactive practice that settles memories, draws out selections and effacements, and points to modes of estrangement and belonging in the city.

Marked by conflicting legacies from the Iberian colonial past, by regimes of slavery and subjection of indigenous populations, Latin American cities are also vibrant scenarios of multicultural heritage. We explore cities as open archives in their specificities, cultural appropriations, and social dilemmas.

The Open Archives collective favors an essayist's approach to research and creations in cinema, photography, visual arts, music, architecture, urbanism, ethnography, media, and literature. The approaches are diverse, covering history, urban geography, anthropology, image and media studies, and literary criticism. Within the diversity of our projects, we discuss key issues such as: What are the relationships between archives, artistic practices, social media, and urban memory? How are urban imaginaries and public spaces in the modern/contemporary city modified by technologies, art, consumption, and political agendas? How can ethnographies be rendered in the intersection between material and virtual cities?

Researchers:

Contributors:

Aida Feitosa (ECO/UFRJ), Anita Guerra (Harvard University), Caio Bortolotti (ECO/UFRJ), Elisa Maia (ECO/UFRJ), Leonardo Ribeiro dos Santos (ECO/UFRJ), Lídia Michelle Damaceno Azevedo (ECO/UFRJ), Mariana Dias (ECO/UFRJ), Mateus Sanches Duarte (Duke University), Mohara Valle (ECO/UFRJ), Nicholas Sineiro (ECO/UFRJ), Patricia Cunegundes (PUC-Rio), Stephanie Andreas Nascimento de Souza (ECO/UFRJ), Sayd Mansur (ECO/UFRJ), Patricia Pamplona (ECO/UFRJ).

Network:

Adrián Gorelik (Universidad de Quilmes), Adriana Medeiros (NegrasFotosGrafias), Alfredo Santillan (Flacso), Ana Paula Alves Ribeiro (UERJ), Anita Leandro (UFRJ), Arnaldo Cruz (Fordham University), Bruno Carvalho (Harvard University), Claudia Ferreira (CACES – Centro de Atividades Culturais, Econômicas e Sociais), Claudio Lomnitz (Columbia University), David Gómez López (Universidad Central del Ecuador), Elane Abreu (IISCA – UFCA), Erika Beton (Flacso), Esther Hamburger (USP), Fernanda Arêas Peixoto (USP), Florencia Garramuño (Universidad de San Andrés), Francisca Márquez Belloni (Universidad Alberto Hurtado), Gonzalo Aguilar (Universidad de Buenos Aires), Gustavo Guerrero (Université Cergy-Pontoise), Janaína Damaceno (UERJ), Lorraine Leu (University of Austin, Texas), Maria Alice Rezende de Carvalho (PUC-Rio), Mariana Cavalcanti (UERJ), Maria Fernanda Troya Gonzalez (Flacso), Mireya Salgado (Flacsco), Thaís Blank (FGV), Vyjaynthi Rao (Terreform Center for Advanced Urban Research).