Parque de la Memoria

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Iommi and Carlos Alonso and representatives of human rights organizations Estela Carlotto (Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize winner). The jury awarded eight prizes and four honorable mentions. In selecting the winners, the jury had in mind the contemporary nature of the languages employed, the poetic sense of the group as a whole and the appeal to an active as opposed to a contemplative audience, in addition to basic principles based on a series of ethical and aesthetic criteria that were coherent with the Park’s intended purpose to maintain memory alive for the future. The artists who were awarded prizes were Claudia Fontes (Argentina), Rini Hurkmans (Holland), Marie Orensanz (Argentina), Grupo de Arte Callejero (Argentina), Nuno Ramos (Brazil), Marjetica Pötrc (Slovenia), Dennis Oppenheim (USA) and Germán Botero (Colombia). The works receiving honorable mentions correspond to Per Kirkeby (Denmark), William Tucker (USA), Nicolás Guagnini (Argentina) and Clorindo Testa (Argentina), in order of merit. Following recommendations made by the jury in their acts, the commission also approved the construction of the first three works that received mentions. In accordance with Law 46, the project for the group of sculptures was rounded out by six artists who were invited

directly by the Comisión pro Monumento on the basis of their prestige, career trajectory and commitment to the defense of human rights. These are Argentineans Roberto Aizenberg (+), Juan Carlos Distéfano, Norberto Gómez and Leo Vinci, North American Jenny Holzer and Polish sculptress Magdalena Abakanowicz. On August 30, 2001, in order to coincide with the International Day of the Detained–Disappeared, the inaugural act was held in the Plaza de Acceso del Parque de la Memoria. A flag with approximately 1,300 photos of victims of disappearance and assassination was placed surrounding the plaza. The presence of those faces lent enormous emotional content to the act. On November 7, 2007, the Monumento a las Víctimas del Terrorismo de Estado was inaugurated, in the presence of both national and city government authorities and representatives of human rights organizations. With the power of the memory of those who fought for a more just society, and a commitment to keeping their ideals alive, those who have undertaken this project will continue to work until completing the original project, sustaining the ideology of this place where both pain and joy are present, along with the possibility that society as a whole might reflect upon the irreparable fracture that crosses through it.


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