The historical update as a counter-updatism action

museums and monuments between remembrance and oblivion in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

In the experience of the time called “updatism”, the future is nothing more than a new version of the present, as if the subject’s power of agency had decayed. This paper analyzes two actions that can help to attenuate this logic: the digitization of museum collections and the discussion about urban monuments. The hypothesis raised by us is that the virtualization of museums and the modification of monuments have potential as historical updates, as long as they comprehend, as well as the historiographical narrative, the legacies of the past and the projects for the future
that are part of the present, aspiring to the defense of democratic values and a more egalitarian society. Finally, we concluded that a better understanding of the present and the renewal of an expectation of the future in which we are agents, and not just spectators, can be achieved through the historical narrative as a counter-updatism action, the incorporation of varied perceptions of the time in historiography and the opening of possibilities in the future.