Segre, Che and the “New Man” of the XXIst century

Abstract

In 2007, the architecture critic Roberto Segre (1934-2013) and the architects José Antonio Choy and Claudio Vekstein were invited by the Municipality of Rosario to elaborate the project for a memorial plaza dedicated to Ernesto "Che" Guevara. In the documents of the desinging process, belonging to the Segre archive, which is currently being studied and organized, there is an emphatic opposition from the architects to a sculpture of Che (a "true image" and "socialist realism", according to them) that the Municipality with wide popular support demanded to place in the square. To defend their opposition, Segre resorted to Che's own mid-20th century writings outlining the idea of the ​​"new man". In addition, it shows the gap between avant-garde and mass, the analyzed episode allows an approach to the thought of the last years of Roberto Segre’s carrer, with recurring themes in his work.