A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
The Round Corner: Community Museology in the Bronx Street
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, an ambitious urban renewal project has been carried out in the heart of Bogotá. In 2016, the old Bronx Street, the epicentre of drug sales and consumption in the city, was vacated. Consequently, many of its residents, especially street dwellers and drug users for whom the Bronx was a refuge, were expelled, institutionalized or disappeared. The excuse for the intervention was the recovery of a strategic sector that had been socially and architecturally degraded by drug trafficking violence. Today, a mega-project for cultural industries called the “Bronx Creative District” is being built on the ruins of the old neighbourhood. And in the only house that was left standing, a museum. This chapter describes the curatorial and action-research experience developed by a group of young ex-residents of the Bronx, the National Museum of Colombia and the Mayor's Office of Bogotá. This work, materialized in the creation and memory laboratory “La Esquina Redonda”, has allowed the circulation, in museum spaces, of materialities and museological counter-narratives about the “war on drugs”, harm reduction, street life and social exclusion in Colombia. A critical reading of this experience provides elements to think about the public management of ruins and uncomfortable memories in a country that urgently needs to change perspective and learn to live with drugs.
The Round Corner: Community Museology in the Bronx Street
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, an ambitious urban renewal project has been carried out in the heart of Bogotá. In 2016, the old Bronx Street, the epicentre of drug sales and consumption in the city, was vacated. Consequently, many of its residents, especially street dwellers and drug users for whom the Bronx was a refuge, were expelled, institutionalized or disappeared. The excuse for the intervention was the recovery of a strategic sector that had been socially and architecturally degraded by drug trafficking violence. Today, a mega-project for cultural industries called the “Bronx Creative District” is being built on the ruins of the old neighbourhood. And in the only house that was left standing, a museum. This chapter describes the curatorial and action-research experience developed by a group of young ex-residents of the Bronx, the National Museum of Colombia and the Mayor's Office of Bogotá. This work, materialized in the creation and memory laboratory “La Esquina Redonda”, has allowed the circulation, in museum spaces, of materialities and museological counter-narratives about the “war on drugs”, harm reduction, street life and social exclusion in Colombia. A critical reading of this experience provides elements to think about the public management of ruins and uncomfortable memories in a country that urgently needs to change perspective and learn to live with drugs.
The Round Corner: Community Museology in the Bronx Street
The City proj.
Cattabriga, Ilaria (editor) / Chinellato, Enrico (editor) / Eghbali, Arshia (editor) / Mutton, Zeno (editor) / Loffredo, Ramona (editor) / Góngora, Andrés (author)
International Conference THE HISTORICAL CITY ; 2023 ; Bologna, Italy
The Historical City. A Critical Reference and Role Model ; Chapter: 17 ; 127-137
The City Project ; 8
2024-12-19
11 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English