Resumen de Public works: Building a Monument to Modern Buenos Aires

Anayvelyse Allen Mossman

• Understanding the relationship between the project of modernity and urbanism has been key to understanding the city of Buenos Aires’ material transformations throughout the 20th century. This paper considers how thinking about the issues of modernity and urbanism from the perspective of monuments--namely, the Obelisk of Buenos Aires--sheds new light on how elements of this modernizing project were undertaken and how its material markers have been used and manipulated, and modified through their representation in cultural discourse on the city. Rethinking Buenos Aires from the Obelisk implies literally thinking from underground, from the subway lines that form its base and transform it into a popular symbol of mobility.