Relatando historias desde abajo. El Museo de la Ciudad como lugar de Memoria: Identidades sociales, espacio urbano y vida cotidiana (Rosario, Argentina, 1981-2010)

Abstract

In comparison with the first museums of the city of Rosario (Argentina), linked to the "hight art" and to the legitimated expressions of the national and local history, and related with the bourgeois imaginary of principles of the XX century, the social history of the Museo de la Ciudad is connected with a program of valorisation of other scenarios, memories and of same people that relate those memoires. In many cases, these people are the social actors and cultural groups that were relegated of the official speeches of the traditional museums. In this sense, the paper studies the Museo de la Ciudad as a “place of memory”. First, the article explores the coordinates that guided the museograhical proposal of this institution of the city and its actions of museal administration. According to this goal, the essay kept in mind certain institutional and cultural specificities of the entity. One first aspect is the constitution of a patrimony and the definition of the politicians of cultural administration that were activated to get the visibility and the re-valorisation of the social identities in the city and of their producers. And a second aspect is the socio-spatial localization of the museum in the Independence Park –not only one of the most important and oldest green space of recreation of the city, but also a relevant social interaction area where many important cultural and sport institutions of Rosario city are located–. This fact contributes to model a specific form of social participation in the activities, journeys and temporary and also permanent samples that the Museum offers to the public.