State materiality at the margins of the State. The institutional architectures of the 20th century - The evolution of an Atacamanian Plateau school (Jujuy, Argentina)

Abstract

In general, the study of state architecture has focused on the analysis of the construction that took place in the centers of power, through which state structures are deployed. In this context, the role of architecture comes from centrality, which contributes to the argument of the conformation of a recognizable and reproducible image of the state apparatus. But what happens in those places that, far from being part of the centrality of the state construction, are found in its margins, even constituting spaces unknown to the state itself? The purpose of this paper is to analyze the construction of state architectures in the Puna de Atacama (Atacamanian Plateau), Argentina, through an ethnographic and historical study that allows analyzing the evolution of this space as part of national construction since the early 20^th century. Methodologically, this will aim at understanding the architectural production of the state not only from the state itself but from local perspectives, recognizing the set of agencies involved in architecture over time. This work is carried out using, as a case study, a school in the town of Coranzulí, in the current province of Jujuy, which from an ethnographic and archival work allows observing this issue, along two analytical lines. The first has to do with the ways of production of architecture as processes where, over time, a complex network of players is involved. The second refers, specifically, to the material characteristics of this architecture, and the way the senses that operate on the apparent uniformity of the state are expressed there. This work, then, allows finally problematizing the very notion of hegemony as an unfinished construction, where the role of local players is fundamental.