Geographies of Crime. From Space of Perpetration to Site of Memory. Social and Cultural Representations

In this event, the third international conference organized by the REPERCRI research group, we propose to reflect on the spaces of violence as places that contain meanings in tension, especially when, through memorial policies, they have been transformed into spaces of memory.

We are interested in situating the discussion around two major axes which, although closely related, require different perspectives and methodological tools, but which we wish to bring into relation and dialogue.

The first of these axes is the detailed analysis of these spaces of mass crimes and their transformations: how have the spaces of violence, their architecture and their materiality, been transformed over time? How are their changes related to the narratives and disputes about the past that appear in the historical periods that follow the processes of mass crimes? How have these spaces been re-functionalized and re-signified, that is, how have they acquired meanings absolutely different from those they had as crime scenes?

The second axis is the analysis of the cultural imagination deployed around these spaces: how have they been represented in cinema, literature, plastic arts or theater? In what way have cultural productions contributed to propose meanings about these spaces and, thus, about the violence that took place in them? How have cultural representations intervened in the social memory about these violences and in the shared meanings about them?

In the event, we will approach this double axis from a general perspective and through the comparison of four case studies, related to the axes of the research project “From Space of Perpetration to Site of Memory. Forms of Representation” (PROMETEO/2020/059). The first case of discussion will be that of Buchenwald, within the concentrationary universe of Nazism. The second case, linked to Francoism, will be that of the Valley of the Fallen. The third case, linked to the military dictatorships of the Latin American Southern Cone, will compare the spaces of Villa Grimaldi in Chile, the ESMA in Argentina and the Memorial da Resistência in Brazil. The fourth case of discussion will be the S-21 Tuol Sleng in Cambodia. Reflection on these four central cases will be complemented by presentations that address more general issues related to spaces of violence and their historical and cultural resignification.