From the memory without place to the place without memory

Photography and text: © Cristian Kirby

  • "There is no occurrence except in the exact place where I am and at the exact moment when I acknowledge it" (E.C.Diano)

    "From the memory without place to the place without memory" is a photographic project that records the places of detention or death of the disappeared detainees during the military dictatorship in Chile. During this first stage, the project refers to the case known as Operation Colombo, which was carried out between 1974 and 1975 as part of a set-up that intended to hide human rights violations and discredit, through mass media communications in Chile and abroad, the claims about 119 disappeared detainees abducted by DINA (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, Direction of National Intelligence) which the regime pointed out were self-exiled or murdered by the members of their own parties.

    This record refers largely to the cases that took place in

  • Santiago, and shows tracings on the city´s map that were known as the route of death. A total of 98 places conform this record; they were located based on the found data. A total of 98 places conform this record; they were located based on the found data.

    "From the memory without place to the place without memory" attempts to show the symbolical marks in space in relation with memory. The record is a representation of a material and symbolical representation. "What used to be a mere physical or geographical space becomes a place with particular significances, loaded with meanings" (Jelin, 2003). These places are undifferentiated in the city, so they represent non-places, in the sense that they refer to memory from absence and void, a condition that emphasizes their inexistence as a result of oblivion. It is the record of a testimony, linked to the concept of mark: trace, sign or indication of an occurrence.