This series of meetings in Spanish invites participants to “visit” some of the most well-known monuments and memorials in the United States and then reflect on the importance of memory in American/US culture.
Each session will focus on a specific monument or memorial, the political and ideological tensions that surround it, and its role in the construction/consolidation of the American/US collective memory. Different means of cultural expression will be used as support materials (cinema, theater, music, graphic novels, documentaries, etc.)
This activity will be moderated by Karen Secret, art expert and teacher of the American Cultural Studies (ACS) courses of the International Institute.
The cycle is made up of 6 sessions that will take place on Tuesdays from 18:30 p.m. to 19:30 p.m. from November 6 to December 11, which will take place in the library or in the American Space Madrid.
Session 1 / 6 Nov.—Vietnam Veterans Memorial, from the Marvin Gaye song "What's going on"(1971).
2 session / Nov 13 — AIDS Memorial Quilt, based on two works by the American-Cuban artist Félix González Torres (1957-1996) Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA) (1991) and Untitled (Perfect Lovers) (1991)
Session 3 / Nov 20— United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, from the graphic novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelmann (1986).
Session 4 / 27 Nov. — National September 11 Memorial Museum, from the song The Rising (2002) by Bruce Springsteen.
Session 5 / 4 Dec. —Statue of Robert E. Lee (in Charlottesville, Virginia), from the VICE documentary – “Charlottesville: Race and Terror".
Session 6 / 11 Dec.— National Memorial for Peace and Justice (in Montgomery, Alabama), from the song "Strange Fruit” in the Billie Holiday version.