Archivos titiriteros en Argentina. Los fondos personales de artistas como formas de resistencia

Abstract

In recent decades, archives have ceased to be understood merely as neutral repositories of documents and are now approached as objects of study shaped by logics of power, selection, and exclusion. This shift is crucial for the documentary heritage related to puppetry in Argentina, a field largely overlooked by historiography and marked by the ephemerality of its practices. The 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, together with various international and Latin American initiatives, highlight the growing concern with the preservation of these artistic forms. The hypothesis guiding this work argues that personal collections of puppeteers, far from being simple private holdings, constitute forms of resistance to the limitations of institutional Archives. Their creation inscribes artistic trajectories into history, ensures the transmission of puppetry, and broadens the very notion of “document” by including objects such as puppets, heads, costumes, and stage designs. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective that combines theatre studies and archival science, the article examines: the early strategies for narrating the history of puppetry in Argentina; the relationship between archives and the performing arts; and finally, proposes a definition of puppetry archives as essential devices for the preservation and re-signification of this artistic practice.