Cultural Prospective: How the Past Inhabits Futures

Postmemory, a concept theorized by Marianne Hirsch, has long been used to understand how historical traumas are transmitted to subsequent generations. But a new essay published by the Chilean magazine Artishock proposes reading this phenomenon in reverse: not how the past is inherited, but how that past inhabits our futures. The author introduces the term “cultural prospective,” which she defines as the deliberate exercise of imagining the possible futures of the institutions that manage our memory.

The essay draws on three concrete cases in Latin America: the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile, the Museum of Memory of Colombia, and the ESMA Memory Site Museum in Argentina. These three institutions, born from different historical contexts, share a common question: how to anticipate what memory will become when faced with the challenges of the future? The author observes that, in the region, the future of memory is not planned, but disputed.

This observation lies at the heart of her proposal: to develop a “prospective from the South” that would allow methodical approaches to what is currently managed without tools. The idea is not to prescribe a single model, but to recognize that Latin American memory institutions, born from social and political struggles, must invent their own futures.

Beyond theoretical reflection, this text is part of a broader debate on the role of memory museums in the 21st century. As these institutions multiply worldwide, their longevity depends on their ability to project themselves into the future without betraying their original mission.

The essay, published on August 31, 2026, is available online on Artishock's website. It invites researchers, curators, and visitors to think of memory not as a fixed heritage, but as a living material, open to possible futures.

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Written by the ADM desk based on Artishock. Read the original article for the full story.