Urbano Project Presents Sergio Beltrán-García's WHO OWNS THE PAST/PRESENT at Goethe-Institut Boston

Urbano Project is excited to announce the celebratory culmination of "Who Owns the Past/Present?," a project created by architect, activist, and researcher on the aesthetics & politics of memory Sergio Beltrán-García in collaboration with Youth Artists from the Urbano Project on May 1. Exploring complex questions around monuments, memorials, memory, representation and justice, the project is co-organized and supported by Goethe-Institut Boston.

Our understanding of memory is grounded in the past. Historically, monuments were built to preserve only certain histories and legacies, erasing others from memory. How do we create space for multiple, alternative, and overlooked histories? What is our right to memory and how can we access it? How can we use art to bring history and memory into the present, speak to our evolving realities, and shape our future?

Through a series of collaborative art activities, site visits, readings, and conversations, youth artists explored how a memorial can become a tool for positive change and how to critique existing monuments. They worked together to research, conceptualize, and build a collaborative memorial in a public space that honors the personal and collective histories that are important to them. In the process, youth learned about inclusive and participatory approaches to monuments and memorialization, and how to think creatively about questions of history, representation, and accessibility.

Register here for the in-person celebration on Sunday, May 1 from 4-5:30 PM at Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street, Boston, MA. There will be a presentation of the final collaborative memorial and opportunities to engage with the artist and youth.

An architect, activist, and researcher, Sergio Beltrán-García engages with aesthetic and political practices of transitional justice by using memory as an entry point. He works closely with victims of human rights violations, their advocates and communities to mobilize critical theories coupled with advanced technologies and transdisciplinary research methods in a diversity of political, cultural, and legal forums. A Chevening scholar, he completed with distinction postgraduate studies at Goldsmiths University of London. Beltrán-García also practices as a forensic architect and assista human rights lawyers, recently testifying as an expert witness in the case of a femicide. He is a member of the Memory Studies Association, and has received fellowships at the Aspen Institute, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Monument Lab.

From Mexico City, Mexico, Sergio has contributed to the development of memorials for distinct events of violence-both in contestation of and in collaboration with different levels of the Mexican government. Among these are the memorials for the fatal 2008 police raid of the New's Divine nightclub in Mexico City, the forced disappearance of 109 peasants during the 1970s Mexican Counterinsurgency, and the collapses of buildings during the 2017 earthquakes in Mexico.