The spatiality of desire in Martín Oesterheld’s La multitud (2012) and Luis Ortega’s Dromómanos (2012)

Abstract

Martín Oesterheld´s La multitud and Luis Ortega´s Dromómanos, each produced in Argentina in 2012, are divergent in style and technique. Nonetheless, the spatial characteristics of each film are such that a comparison between them allows one to reconceptualise notions of marginality and creativity in contemporary Buenos Aires. La multitud is an observational documentary that depicts various urban typologies found in the east and south of the city. More specifically, the film focusses on the remains of two ambitious, unfinished, and abandoned amusement parks, La Ciudad Deportiva de la Boca and Interama, latterly known as the Parque de la Ciudad. The film then utilises these architectural ruins as a focal point to explore the surrounding areas. While the south of the city has historically developed as a peripheral area, the spaces depicted in La multitud represent particularly sharp instances of urban marginalisation. Dromómanos, in contrast, follows a range of socially marginalised characters in Buenos Aires as they enter and cross areas such as the Northern corridor (Plaza Francia, Plaza Italia, and Palermo), an area close to the city centre which is more typically a site of residence for the middle and higher-middle class; Barrio Compal, a deprived settlement in the extreme outer edge of the urban fabric of greater Buenos Aires; and others including the city centre proper and a psychiatric hospital. The contrast between Barrio Compal and the central areas depicted in Dromómanos (especially the Northern corridor) is sufficiently sharp to underline the geographical and socio-economic marginalisation of the former area. Nonetheless, it is the film?s unapologetic, if not confrontational, depiction of diverse forms of social marginalisation which most captures the viewer?s attention. The film unflinchingly records the lived experience of an alcoholic, a psychiatric patient, and a disabled man as they traverse the city seemingly without aim or purpose. In order to reconcile this representation of the fringes of Argentine society with the more overtly spatial analysis found in La multitud, this chapter will argue that the two films re-conceptualise the idea of urban marginality itself, through their depiction of movement, desire and, ultimately, of power.