Archeologia di un continente: astrazione, pedagogia e progetto nel Sud delle Americhe

In the thoughts of many explorers, the desert represents the ideal place for imagination. Even more so if we talk about a remote place such as the Andean plateaus, located on the edge of a continent where the great prehistoric cultures of the South of Americas settled following the ancestral knowledge of cosmovision. At the same time, the construction of an infrastructural system as impressive and extensive as the Qhapaq Ñan (Andean Road System of 30,000 km) suggests the importance of understanding archaeology beyond the canonical imagery of the single artifact. Therefore, informed by the use of archival materials and field studies in the Chilean region of N orte G rande, this paper presents a trajectory of interrelated episodes based on the inextricable relationship between the vast territorial dimension and the archaeological heritage sedimented over centuries. Especially, the relationship in tension between the pre-Columbian world and the modern era explored in the arts and within the specific field of architectural discipline, gave a crucial contribution to the formation of thoughts and practices driven by the urge to rediscover the continent.