EL CAMPITO

From 1976 until 1983 Argentina was under the rule of a brutal dictatorship that carried out a systematic plan of terror, torture and disappearance of political adversaries and civilians throughout the country. Over 500 illegal detention centers were set up in various locations (military facilities, police stations, auto repair shops, industrial company premises, amongst others), merging with the everyday urban landscape of a "normalized" reality by force of arms. One of the tragically famous ones is Campo de Mayo, where over 5000 people were forcibly taken to after being kidnapped. Only a few survived.

From 2015 to 2017, an interdisciplinary team carried out the virtual reconstruction of El Campito, the clandestine detention center that operated in Campo de Mayo alongside three clandestine maternity wards. This center was demolished at the end of 1978 to hide material evidence of the dictatorship’s crimes and prevent convictions.

Thanks to the testimonies of the survivors and to the two year long forensic work of the interdisciplinary team of social scientists, museologists, programmers, designers, and student volunteers, today it is possible to visit the clandestine detention center from anywhere in the world.

The platform has already been used as material evidence in one of the court cases for crimes against humanity and the team continues to work on a bill for the creation of a memory site on the premises.

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This project was carried out within an interdisciplinary  group of researchers and volunteers of the National University of San Martin, the University of General Sarmiento (Dr. Virginia Vechiolli and Dr. Francisco Suárez), and Huella Digital (School of Architecture and Urbanism of Buenos Aires).