Contemporary Mapuche Art Installations and Sculptures: The Articulation of Spaces of Identity in Santiago and Temuco

• In Event: Producción cultural, identidades y racismo: mapuches en Chile

Abstract

Having lost most of their territories at the end of the nineteenth century, many Mapuche were forced to move to cities in Chile where they were marginalized. Today many urban Mapuche are establishing connections with urban spaces through artistic expressions such as poetry, music, and visual arts. This paper explores how contemporary Mapuche visual artists Loreto Millalén and Christian Collipal create meaningful connections with specific spaces in Santiago and Temuco in their art installations and sculptures. The artists express the Mapuche spiritual relationship to the land and assert their presence in urban scenarios by creating works of art that include placing Pewenche textiles (chañuntukos) on the floor, planting carved wooden statues (chemamüll) in the earth, and constructing sacred altars (rewe) that mark an axis mundi. This study argues that their art can be interpreted as a symbolic appropriation of some key spaces in the city. It also examines how these artists engage in dialogue with their ancestors’ art forms and resignify them in urban contexts, bringing together different types of knowledge from among global flows.

Author

• Andrea L Echeverría, Wake Forest University