Profane maps, panoramic sights and alter-native images. Shapes of the Argentine-Chilean southern boundary in Ushuaia.
In this paper, I put forward preliminary conclusions, based in the ethnographic observation of three cases of community image usage in the city of Ushuaia, capital of the Province of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina).
The recent provincialization (1992) of Tierra del Fuego National Territory, Ushuaia’s location as a border city together with a sustained immigration are the three essential focal points of the local economic development. The mentioned cases of the community image usage refer respectively to those three focal points and do not disengage from them. Firstly, the use by groups belonging to the civil society of the outline of the provincial map as a characteristic symbol in different public areas. Secondly, the repetition of the panoramic sight in the city’s photographic history. Lastly, the portrait in some examples of the recent local author photography. Thus, maps and photos are assessed in this paper as producers of a geopolitical symbolic representation fabric, both reflexive and performative.