Jaar

Architectural Rendering - Aerial view features Museo de la Memoria y Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memoryand Human Rights) and its adjacent Plaza de la Memoria (Plaza of Memory) – Located in Barrio Yungay, Santiago de Chile. The museum’s website states, “since 1839, Barrio Yungay has harbored artists and intellectuals, theatres, schools, churches, and museums, and is part of a cultural circuit that articulates interesting institutions from the area.” (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio, Translation by Lissette Olivares)

Architectural Rendering - Aerial view features Museo de la Memoria (Museum of Memory) and its adjacent Plaza de la Memoria (Plaza of Memory) – Located in Barrio Yungay, Santiago de Chile. The Museum’s website states, “since 1839, Barrio Yungay has harbored artists and intellectuals, theatres, schools, churches, and museums, and is part of a cultural circuit that articulates interesting institutions from the area.” (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio, Translation by Lissette Olivares)

Architectural Rendering - Aerial view features Museo de la Memoria y Los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights) and Plaza de la Memoria (Plaza of Memory) – Located in Barrio Yungay, Santiago de Chile. The museum’s website states, “since 1839, Barrio Yungay has harbored artists and intellectuals, theatres, schools, churches, and museums, and is part of a cultural circuit that articulates interesting institutions from the area.” (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio, Translation by Lissette Olivares)

Architectural Rendering - Aerial view features Museo de la Memoria y Los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights) and Plaza de la Memoria (Plaza of Memory) – Located in Barrio Yungay, Santiago de Chile. The museum’s website states, “since 1839, Barrio Yungay has harbored artists and intellectuals, theatres, schools, churches, and museums, and is part of a cultural circuit that articulates interesting institutions from the area.” (Translation by Lissette Olivares)

Architectural Rendering - Aerial view of an architectural rendering that features Museo de la Memoria y Los Derechos Humanos and Plaza de la Memoria (Museum of Memory and Human Rights and The Plaza of Memory) The large blue-green rectangular building is the main edifice of the museum, it is three stories high and surrounded by glass walls. The north and south walls are laminated in copper, which according to the museum’s website, “emphasizes national identity.” To the left of the building, embedded in the ground at a slight angle, is the entrance to the memorial, La geometria de la conciencia (The Geometry of Consciousness). (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio, Translation by Lissette Olivares)

Architectural Rendering - Aerial view of an architectural rendering that features Museo de la Memoria and Plaza de la Memoria – The large blue-green rectangular building is the main edifice of the museum, it is three stories high and surrounded by glass walls. The north and south walls are laminated in copper, which according to the museum’s website, “emphasizes national identity.” The museum was designed by an architectural team from Sao Paulo that includes Mario Figueroa, Lucas Fehr and Carlos Dias. On the north side of the building, embedded in the ground at a slight angle, is the entrance to the memorial Geometría de la conciencia (The Geometry of Consciousness) (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio, Translation by Lissette Olivares)

Located in the Plaza de la Memoria (the Plaza of Memory), fifteen meters from the museum’s entry, La Geometría de La Conciencia is interred six meters beneath the ground, constituting an architectural incision opposite to the museum’s massive edifice

Shown here is an external view of the entrance to the memorial La geometria de la conciencia (The Geometry of Consciousness) (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Point of view perspective of the descent into La geometría de la conciencia (The Geometry of Consciousness) (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Detail: Plaque (The Geometry of Consciousness) (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Visitors descend into the contemplation chamber of La geometría de la conciencia (The Geometry of Consciousness). (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Visitors descend into the contemplation chamber of La geometría de la conciencia (The Geometry of Consciousness). (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

View of museum from the interior of La geometría de la conciencia (The Geometry of Consciousness). (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

At the base of the stairs, visitors enter the memorial’s sealed inner chamber to the right. (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Entry threshold of La geometría de la conciencia (The Geometry of Consciousness) (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

A docent trained by Alfredo Jaar provides information about the imminent memorial experience. (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

A docent trained by Alfredo Jaar provides information about the imminent memorial experience. (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

A docent trained by Alfredo Jaar provides information about the imminent memorial experience, and guides them into the enclosed inner chamber. (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Entering the inner chamber of La geometría de la conciencia (The Geometry of Consciousness) (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Visitors are submerged in silence, darkness, and visual stasis for a period of sixty seconds. (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Slowly, a dim light begins to emanate from the front wall, progressively growing stronger, its white rays filtering through seemingly endless rows and columns of silhouettes. (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Two lateral walls of mirrors create the effect of infinite reflection- of both the memorial’s visitors and its lighted silhouettes. (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

Confronted with a wall of illuminated silhouette profiles. (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)

The light continues to intensify until it reaches its brightest capacity, burning the silhouettes into the mind’s inner retina. (Courtesy Alfredo Jaar Studio)