CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve is located on the central shore of Buenos Airescity, along the Rıo de la Plata. The foundations of this site are the product of theaccumulated rubble that was deposited there by the city council during Argentina´s lastdictatorship (1976?1983), mainly with the purpose of settling a terrain for theconstruction of a new municipal Administrative Centre. However, the AdministrativeCentre was never built and the rubble was colonised by all sorts of flora and faunacoming down the river. After the dictatorship ended, the zone was designated as the?Parque Nacional y Reserva ecologica.? In this article we explore the Reserva as avisible and public space that evidences the ongoing dialectic of construction anddestruction that underlies the projects for refurbishment carried out by the last civilianmilitarygovernment. Taking this as our point of departure, we examine the ways inwhich the rubble ? as the left-over material of the demolitions carried out by thedictatorship ? is (re)connected to the space of the city and its history. We analyse theplace that the rubble´s illicit origin occupies in the history of the Reserva and how thisspace is conceived, used, and imagined today. Our argument is structured in threeparts. In the first, we focus our investigation on the Reserva´s genesis. In the second,we look at how the space of the Reserva is being rewritten by the neoliberal citycouncil, which uses ?ecological? discourse while deliberately overlooking the site´sunlawful origin. In the third part, we explore uses of the concept of ecology that mightfoster a more profound understanding of the complexities of this terrain. We concludewith a reflection on the various uses and discourses that criss-cross the space of theReserva today.

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