October 15: Human Rights.

Word of the Day: Arpillera- a Chilean craftwork tradition of using scraps of fabric to tell a sew a picture, which during the dictatorship period were used as a form of memory, protest and healing

Today I went to the Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights) and it was unlike any other museum I had ever been to before, both structurally and conceptually. It's a beautiful, very new, huge, modern, open space with lots of light that enters.
Conceptually, it is a fascinating idea: a museum on a national level that attempts to commemorate victims of violence perpetrated by the state itself, openly exposing the past to the viewer.
I thought the museum in general did an excellent job of commemorating the victims, making them seem like real people with testimonies, pictures and artifacts. One area that I thought it was a little weak in was explaining the context of the dictatorship and the strength of support for Pinochet, factors that are still important in understanding political realities in Chile today.
It's hard to do that though without making apologies for abuses and I think the factions that directed the project itself would not have wanted to do that. Above all, its an interesting concept, the idea that a museum can create a historical narrative.

My favorite part of the museum was the large display spanning 2 floors of faces from those who were disappeared, tortured, or killed during Pinochet's regime. Pictures are so simple, but they express so much sometimes, in this case, the faces of the living expressing everything that political violence and intolerance can rob from a society.
There was also a large set of beautiful arpilleras upstairs, the quality of which I had never seen before.

There was also extensive information in the foyer on Truth Comissions from around the globe and on Chilean memorial sites.

All in all, a well done project.

Here's an article about the museum that was in Newsweek a while back: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/03/31/the-art-of-darkness.html