Ecology, rubble, and disappearance: reflections on the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve in Buenos Aires

Abstract

The Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve is located on the central shore of Buenos Aires city, along the Río de la Plata. The foundations of this site are the product of the accumulated rubble that was deposited there by the city council during Argentina's last dictatorship (1976–1983), mainly with the purpose of settling a terrain for the construction of a new municipal Administrative Centre. However, the Administrative Centre was never built and the rubble was colonised by all sorts of flora and fauna coming down the river. After the dictatorship ended, the zone was designated as the “Parque Nacional y Reserva ecológica.” In this article we explore the Reserva as a visible and public space that evidences the ongoing dialectic of construction and destruction that underlies the projects for refurbishment carried out by the last civilian-military government. Taking this as our point of departure, we examine the ways in which the rubble–as the left-over material of the demolitions carried out by the dictatorship–is (re)connected to the space of the city and its history. We analyse the place that the rubble's illicit origin occupies in the history of the Reserva and how this space is conceived, used, and imagined today. Our argument is structured in three parts. In the first, we focus our investigation on the Reserva's genesis. In the second, we look at how the space of the Reserva is being rewritten by the neoliberal city council, which uses “ecological” discourse while deliberately overlooking the site's unlawful origin. In the third part, we explore uses of the concept of ecology that might foster a more profound understanding of the complexities of this terrain. We conclude with a reflection on the various uses and discourses that criss-cross the space of the Reserva today.