Więźniowie Ritoque. Miasto Otwarte i obóz koncentracyjny w Ritoque
Prisoners of Ritoque. The Open City and the Concentration Camp

Summary/Abstract: An account of events which transpired in Ritoque (Chile), situated 20 kms from Valparaíso. In the 1970s the Ciudad Abierta experimental premise was created on nearby dunes. At the same time, the Augusto Pinochet junta established a concentration camp for political prisoners in a former holiday centre situated at the Ritoque beach. Despite the slight distance between Open City and the camp both remained mutually unnoticeable. At the same time, the camp inmates and the authors of the City (professors of the School of Architecture at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso) resorted to extremely similar techniques – games, events, and performances – for the sake of transforming the surrounding in which they found themselves. By assuming different roles they performed (created) space.The apolitical activity of representatives of the Valparaíso School of Architecture was, however, supposed to result in the making of a utopian enclave, a place for new forms of education and creative practices, while the camp inmates tried to overcome compulsory isolation and politically resist their oppressors.

• Details
• Contents