![]() ![]() 8 Until 2005, the penitentiary had only male prisoners, and from 2007 it became a female penitentiar (.)ġ0 In the case of prisons, therefore, and their original function of incarceration, there exists a strong and imponderable mark linked to the difficulties involved in preserving a marginal heritage: little or nothing is identified, and almost always uncomfortable issues arise.7 In this category we can include the heritage linked to diseases such as leprosy and madness (Borge (.).This view does not account for the complexity of the prison problem, and it reduces any possibility of reflection and understanding of the prison as a space imbricated by historical and heritage values. In this difficult scenario, the mass media, which report rebellions and irregularities in the penitentiary system in a reductionist and sensationalist way, end up contributing to the already historically and socially consolidated construction of the negative social representation of the prison and the prisoners. What enables memory are the connections with the present, which allow for reflection on the current implications of prison spaces.ħ Factors such as the criminalization of poverty, which in an elastic and brutal web now encompass the survival strategies of the poorest groups, as along with the fight against drug trafficking, are the main elements that help explain the boom in incarceration rates in almost every country in the Western world (Salla, 2006). Prisons are not memory, they are functioning, they continue in the present, and they are usually only remembered when they threaten society beyond the prison walls. Patrimonialization tells about how we deal with not only this distant past, but also the recent and uncomfortable past. They are spaces converted into testaments to by-gone eras that have few features in common with the present. 3 According to Borges and Santos (2019: 84 author’s translation), for example, in “Brazil, several (.)Ħ The patrimonialization of medieval dungeons and fortresses linked to castles and/or historical buildings is common and almost unquestionable 3 due to their long-standing history as attractions and lack of direct connection with the present.The intention to have the visitor feel like the imprisoned person is reduced to a fun experience, a one-off, free of any type of reflection, and disassociated from the daily lives of those who seek out such spaces out of curiosity or for enjoyment. The Prison HeritageĤ Prison archives, and their museum counterparts, hold objects that are interesting and contradictory in nature: from the knives used in rebellions and ropes once employed in escape attempts or suicides to the presentation of scenarios that strive to reproduce the prison environment, its cells, and its places of punishment. ![]() Also discussed will be the trajectory of the research that led to the identification of a previously unknown painter, José Joaquim de Almeida, artistic name Pinho, looking at the texture, the paths, and the meanings contained in the uses of his works, which enable prison heritage to be examined from these categories. ![]() Such questions are delimited within the arenas of present time history, an unfinished history filled with new meanings, bringing out the unwanted, the uncomfortable. 1 The objective is to problematize the collections of paintings and drawings held by these two spaces, pieces whose creators are either totally unknown or about which we have only partial information.ģ The relationships established by and arising from these objects, and their potentialities to discuss the notion of prison heritage, will be analyzed. 1 I would like to thank both institutions and the Almeida family for having contributed and made thi (.)Ģ This article undertakes an analysis of the collections of the Paulista Penitentiary Museum (Museu Penitenciário Paulista), in São Paulo, Brazil, and the Museum Centre of the Directorate-General of Reintegration and Prison Services (Núcleo Museológico da Direção Geral de Reinserção e Serviços Prisionais), in Lisbon, Portugal.
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