Affect, memory and territory. An epistemological approach to the concept of affective archive

LUCAS GERARDO SAPOROSI

Lovaina

Conferencia; Mnemonics 2018. Ecologies of Memory; 2018

The article explores the epistemological possibilities of the construction of an ?affective archive? and its implications on the urban territory, considering the contributions of contemporary social theory and the perspective of the affective turn. Specifically, it is intended to inquire on the impact that certain aesthetic productions (audiovisual installations, public performances and found footage) and sites of memory (former clandestine detention centers) ? both related to the memory of last Argentinian dictatorship- generate on the perceptions of the community, on the circulation of public discourses and on the transformation of the urban landscape. To do so, we consider these types of ephemeral interventions, historical spaces and non-conventional documents enrolled in a broad concept of archive which entangles affective, bodily and spatial conditions as well as the political, ethical and institutional ones. We intend to reconstruct a relevant discussion between Sara Ahmed (2015) and Ann Cvetkovich (2003), to whom the constitution of this form of archive admits novel entry points for contemporary explorations of memory processes and violence experiences displaced form the public sphere and hegemonic narratives. Ludmila Da Silva Catela (2014), from an anthropologist perspective, provides the historical and theoretical foundations of the concept of ?territory of memory? which enables the possibility to configure a situated and experiential remembrance in the context of the community and the environment. Finally, it reveals necessary to analyze the contributions of Jacques Derrida (1997) and Arlette Farge (1998) in order to build up the genealogy of the affective archive.