The Writings on the City’s Walls: Street Art and Graffiti in Santiago, Chile in a Time of Social Revolution
FEBRUARY 17, 2020
Reporting: Street Art NYC (LINK)
The following post is by Houda Lazrak:
While visiting Santiago, Chile in late December, I sat down with Santiago-based architect and street art/graffiti expert Sebastián Cuevas Vergara. We met a few blocks from one of Santiago’s main urban landmarks, Plaza Baquedano, now known as Plaza de la Dignidad or Dignity Square — the main site of Chile’s protests against social inequality that erupted last October following a hike in subway fares.
Every Friday afternoon, thousands gather in Plaza de la Dignidad to express their frustration with the high cost of living, rising rents, government corruption and an unsustainable social welfare system. The walls in the vicinity are plastered with protest posters, tags, graffiti, wheatpastes and other varied urban interventions.
Sebastián shared some of his thoughts and observations about the current state of public space in Santiago:
So much has changed here since I last visited Chile in 2013. What are you up to at the moment?
I am currently teaching a street art class at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Chile. This a particularly pertinent moment to be talking about people’s relation to public space in view of all the street art that has surfaced since the social crisis started.
Yes, it does seem extremely relevant.
I have a thesis: Santiago is the city with the most diverse graffiti in the world at the moment. There is poetic graffiti, urban graffiti, feminist graffiti, political graffiti…
And so many posters too!
The languages of the streets are changing. When the protests started, designers started making posters: a simple, straightforward, immediate response. Posters and graphics have been part of Chilean identity since the 1970s, so this was quickly picked up again.
Is this happening mainly in the city center?
It is concentrated in the center of the city. This is where it has the most significance, near ‘zona cero’ where the protests surface every Friday.
How have the graffiti and street art changed in Santiago since the social revolution erupted?
There are several changes. First, many artists are no longer signing their works. The personal nature of graffiti is not of essence now. Artists are, instead, giving their art to the movement. This is particularly interesting, because the graffiti scene in Santiago is very competitive. Second, works are much larger in scale because artists are collaborating. Third, performance art is integrated into the protests and with the graffiti and street art. Finally, feminist street art is now at the forefront. The work of groups like the Chilean feminist collective LASTESIS has gone viral.
Submission thanks to: TXMX, Peter, Josiah, Brooklyn Street Art, NY Streetart, evanwier, and Everything4Everyone
Wash those hands! Be safe! Maybe don't go out painting right now??
Another quick round of photo uploads from TXMX in Hamburg, DE
Once again, Stencil Archive welcomes the annual submissions from one of the site's longest-running collaborators. We always enjoy seeing what's going on in the streets of (mostly) Hamburg, DE and TXMX gets the goods. Thanks always, and hope all is well with you over in the EU zones.
Thanks for submissions: Brooklyn Street Art/Jaime Rojo, Raven, and Josiah