Memoria Abierta works towards the creation of a space that tells of what occurred during the period of political violence and State terrorism in Argentina.

We understand a museum as a place for democratic learning through reflection on what took place in the past. In this context, we support the state initiative to construct a “Space for Memory and the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights” in the territory of the Navy Mechanics School. (ESMA).

We Human Rights organizations desire that the valuable documentation accumulated during the years of struggle for life and the defense of human rights during the dictatorship and the posterior fight for obtaining truth and justice, form part of an institution that can present a documented narrative of what took place.

The Museum that we envision should be a place where present citizens and future generations come to know the recent history of the country through testimonies, documents and objects. We hope that the Museum will contribute to the comprehension of what took place in past decades and will stimulate, in those who visit, an active commitment to solving the country’s problems.

Through its various programs, Memoria Abierta works to gather, organize and preserve all types of materials that can constitute the future Museum. These documents (written and audiovisual) form part of private collections, the collections of Human Rights organizations, as well as public sources.

Since the year 2000, Memoria Abierta has organized a series of encounters and panels that permitted a fruitful approach regarding the nature, characteristics and objectives of a museum that would shed light on what occurred in Argentina during the past decades.

Parts of the results of these discussions are contained in “The Museum that We Want” (out of print, soon to be available on the web). Conferences have also been carried out with Sara Bloomfield (director of the Holocaust Museum in Washington), Jim Volkert (Vice-director of the Indian-American Museum, Smithsonian Institution) and Avraham Milgram, (Director of Research at the Yad Vashem Museum).