Official Imaginary and Cultural Places in Chile: Reflections on the Niemeyer case

Abstract

In 2007, the city of Valparaiso (Chile) received a donation from the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. It was a blueprint for a cultural centre, planned to be built on the grounds of the "Former prison cultural park". However, the project never succed to be implemented, opening a long debate within the Chilean public sphere. The striking contrast between the project's architectural style and the city's architectural characteristics and the neglect of the opinion of local communities and grassroots organizations, were denounced from the start by the actors involved. On the other hand, it was expected that the brainchild of the renowned architect would simbolically legitimise the city, encourage tourism and revitalise its economy. Taking into account the urban marketing dynamics involved in Valparaíso, the aim of this work is to analyze how the official promotion of the cultural center conceived by Oscar Niemeyer is related with an underlying paradigm of the concertacionist conception of culture.