“Una imagen real de la Argentina”: Image-based Counter-narratives through the Walking Archive and the Project Hegemony

After the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz —then Minister of Economy under the Military Dictatorship— promoted an initiative to publish an article in Time Magazine in which “a real image of Argentina would be given” —in the words of businessman Carlos Pedro Blaquier, strongly close to the military regime—. But who deines the extent of reality of an image? Who makes these “real images” and how do they articulate within the construction of national history and identity? Along this article, and departing from the construction of the past in Argentina through the “real images” produced within the economic and artistic institutions, we will examine the image-based counternarratives propounded by Eduardo Molinari through his Walking Archive and the collaborative project Hegemony. These two contemporary artistic projects focus mainly on the last decades of the 20th century in order to give visibility to the existent relations among economic groups, the military, politicians and the cultural system in Argentina. These relations have provided legitimacy to certain processes of construction of “real” narratives and also to certain artistic practices, while rejecting others.