Construction of Chile's second Museum of Memory will have to wait. As reported by national newspaper La Tercera, the project designed for the city of Concepción "was not included as a priority in the 2019 budget" by the Regional Ministerial Secretariat (Seremi) of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) of Biobío.
“We are talking about a construction project that we have estimated at nearly 4 billion pesos [USD 6 million]; it is therefore beyond what the MOP has historically built,” Daniel Escobar, regional secretary (Seremi) of Public Works, told the same outlet, adding that the budget is reaching 88 UF per square meter (2.6 million Chilean pesos). Following the shelving of the project, the mayor of Concepción, Álvaro Ortiz, questioned on Radio Cooperativa that “some technical reasons are being argued that, curiously, we did not know about before.”
With a built area of approximately 1,500 square meters, the second Museum of Memory in Chile —the first is in Santiago— is part of the reparation measures proposed by the Valech Commission for those who “suffered detention and torture for political reasons” during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) in Chile.
In August 2016, the MOP's Architecture Directorate organized a public design competition on a site located next to the memorial for the detained and disappeared on Concepción's Bicentennial axis. In November of that same year, the project by architects Miguel Casassus + OF Arquitectos was selected as the winner of the competition, with the jury praising “its architecture of pure lines, which achieves simplicity in its expression, making these attributes the link to the values of memory and respect for human rights.”
The news comes at a time when the Museum of Memory in Santiago has been the subject of public debate following statements by the recently resigned Minister of Cultures, Mauricio Rojas, who declared in 2015 that the space was “a sham.” This coincides with the recent announcement of the creation of the Museum of Democracy by President Sebastián Piñera.
Via La Tercera, Radio Cooperativa.
This article was written by Nicolás Valencia. The translation is powered by AI.
Miguel Casassus + OF Arquitectos ganan concurso para diseñar Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos en Concepción, Chile
Entre 30 propuestas presentadas, el equipo de Miguel Casassus, Alvaro Ramírez, Francisco Cepeda y Jean Araya se adjudicó el primer lugar del concurso de diseño del Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos de la región del Biobío en Concepción (Chile), según informó el Gobierno Regional ayer miércoles 23 de noviembre.
