Objects in memory settings: theoretical approaches and analysis of examples referring to the children of the disappeared in Argentina

Abstract

First, we propose a reflection on three types of objects linked to various memory settings: the witness objects that functions as a verdictive code whose first intention is to certify the event; the memory object that displays a memory work of a reflective-interpretive and/or elaborative type; and the emblematic object that is presented and acts in the demonstrations, in the commemorations, in the trials, in the protests and demands articulated in the struggles for memory, truth and justice. We then focus on examining a set of cultural productions made by the children of victims of State terrorism deployed during the last Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983). We finally study the biographical and autobiographical objects exemplified from two exhibitions by the artist from La Plata, Andrea Suárez Córica, one in which she gathers objects from her murdered mother (The embrace of objects 2020) and another (The girl and the file 2019) in which she gathers objects from his own childhood.