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Parque de la Memoria de Buenos Aires I Photo : parquedelamemoria . org . ar
official and community-based memorial spaces , the emergence of spontaneous memorials , pilgrimages to sites of memory , and many other forms of commemorative practices . Even though the ‘ culture of memory ’ has spread over the globe , and memory ’ s political uses are varied , at their core , these remain tied to the histories of specific communities , nations and states . An important aspect of the culture of memory may be found in the way the struggle for justice and human rights and the remembrance of traumatic events have been strongly linked to one another , as many nations – Germany , Chile , Spain , Mexico , Rwanda , South Africa , Argentina , Colombia , United States , Guatemala , Peru among so many others – seek to create democratic societies in the wake of histories of mass exterminations , slavery , apartheids , segregation , military dictatorships , and totalitarianism .
Even though monuments and memorials have been built around the globe for many centuries , the atrocities , crimes and disasters of the recent past have been self-consciously inscribed into our build environment as never before in history . Few cities in Europe , South America or the United States do without public spaces dedicated to some such commemoration , and the nearly instinctual response of public authorities and communities , to public debates on such diverse issues as the “ desaparecidos ”, the Holocaust , recent wars , civil rights and slavery is to erect some kind of physical marker about these complex and difficult histories . Memorials in such diverse locations as Washington D . C . and Berlin , Buenos Aires and Krakow , Gorée and Nantes , Liverpool and Santiago , New York and Barcelona , remind passer-bys of wars , genocides and crimes against humanity . As a result , architects and artists , alongside with activists , public historians and cultural agents find themselves playing an important role in public discourses about history , memory , ethics , politics and the public domain . overview
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