The artistic project "Esquinas resignificantes" seeks to investigate the relationship between the processes of significance of the urban place in the configuration of identity (s) from the perspective of different groups of people and community contexts of Cerro de Montevideo, Uruguay.
We speak of "inquiring" and not investigating in the sense of searching for "traces" or "clues" that allow us to understand how the "urban place" of identification and the symbolic construction of objects create a feeling and sense of belonging .
Faced with a reality, in which the “collective identity” is seen or perceived as fractured or fragmented, or at least in permanent dynamism and where the perceptions of the intangible and material heritages linked to the construction of identity are colored by new meanings: How do the cultural meanings of the “new generations”, new neighbors or recent immigrants, their values and beliefs influence the construction of identities based on emerging cultural baggage? How are urban places perceived by different groups? Can we consider "the emerging" as a producer of new meanings in relation to the construction of identities?
The Project is developed within the framework of the APEX Program (Learning and Extension) of the University of the Republic, Uruguay. The purpose of the University Program is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the population of Cerro de Montevideo, from a methodology based on the notions of social participation, multisectoriality (University, Primary and Secondary Schools, Early Childhood, Community Promoters -as, etc.) and interdisciplinarity (linking the areas of knowledge: social, health, arts, technology, etc.). From an integral perspective of university functions: teaching, research and extension, the APEX Program is an interdisciplinary project with an emphasis on health, and it is from an integral and positive conception. The Artistic area is a support for the development of intense processes of collective construction of citizenship for the different interdisciplinary work teams.
The Cerro de Montevideo began to be populated at the beginning of the 19th century with the arrival of different groups of immigrants (Spanish, Italians, Yugoslavs, Armenians, Poles, Lithuanians, among others) who chose the Cerro as their place of residence, giving the neighborhood the name of " Villa Cosmopolis ”, referring to heterogeneity and interculturality. Since its foundation in 1834, the rise of the meat industry with refrigerators and salting rooms made this territory become a self-sufficient neighborhood, the work gave rise to an economic security that allowed a social network strongly linked to the union struggles, the workers' rights and interculturality. Workers in the meat industry and immigrants who have contributed to the identity building processes of a neighborhood and a country that was considered a benchmark for well-being, development and cultural diversity.