In quite distinctive ways, protagonists of Argentine spaces of memory have addressed the complex questions of whether and how visitors experience empathy and empathic unsettlement in these spaces. I will draw from my recent experiences as co-professor with Marita Sturken of a group of US students in Buenos Aires. I will suggest that tension-ridden engagement between outsiders and insiders, including our exchanges with Argentine guides in three iconic sites of memory, can in some instances be conceived as empathic unsettlement. I will make use of performance studies to reflect on our “situatedness” within these spaces, in terms of “co-performance” and the outsider within. I hope to relate our dialogues and experiences to the possibilities for cross-border solidarities.
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