In the midst of urban marginalisation and territorial stigmatisation, community museums have emerged as potent tools for cultural empowerment and visibility, particularly within vulnerable districts like Isla Maciel in Buenos Aires. Aldana V. Epherra’s ethnographic study of the Isla Maciel Community Museum foregrounds the museum's role not only as a repository of local memory, but as a transformative agent contesting the dominant narratives of violence and decay historically projected by mainstream media. Through initiatives such as muralism, community-led tours, heritage displays, and intergenerational storytelling, the museum strategically reconstructs local identity and challenges the spatial stigma that undermines residents’ dignity and access to opportunities. These cultural practices do not merely preserve history—they re-signify space, turning a once-invisibilised and criminalised territory into a platform for recognition and collective pride. The museum thus functions as both a symbolic and practical intervention into the politics of representation, bridging the gap between cultural production and urban justice. At its core, this model asserts that territory is not only physical but deeply socio-affective, and that the control of narrative is just as vital as the control of space. As social imaginaries are constantly shaped by visual and discursive regimes, the community museum actively reconstructs urban perception, offering an embodied and participatory alternative to hegemonic cartographies.
Epherra V., Aldana (2022). Cultural practices and territorial visibility. Experiences from a community museum in Buenos Aires. URBS. Revista de Estudios Urbanos y Ciencias Sociales, 12(2), 87–93.
