Material Heritage & the Chilean October Crisis 20XX

Chilean National Heritage Days:  Fri. 28 & Sat. 29 May 2021

A 1.5 hour walking tour of the protest destruction of built heritage in Ground Zero. 

11:00 am. Meet at the north entrance to Metro Univerdad Catolica, Alameda Avenue, Barrio Lastarria, Santiago, Chile (image)

The heritag Barrio Lastarria and adjacent Barrio San Borja are located in what is now known as Ground Zero, the epicentre of five month Chilean October Crisis 2019 that was suspended by COVID 19 quarantine in March 2020. When quarantine was lifted in October 2020, the unprecedented protest violence and destruction resumed with the destruction by fire of two historic churches to mark the first anniversary of 18 October, 2019. The Chilean October Crisis was initiated on that day with the simultaneous attack by protesters on 20 metro stations and their city wide looting, arson and vandalism of built heritage. This form of extortion rapidly spread to 11 of Chile's 15 regions. Ground Zero was established by this violence early in the crisis. 

In all, 18 buildings were set on fire in Ground Zero, a soccer field size area of pavement was smashed up with hammers and crowbars by protesters to make missiles to throw at police and every piece of pedestrian urban infrastrcucture and street lighting was destroyed, every vertical surface covered in graffiti and every public monument defaced. Three heritage listed buildings in Ground Zero were destroyed by fire and every glass surface for a radius of 1 kilometre had to be covered in welded sheet metal to protect what remained of building interiors after ransacking and wanton destruction. 

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Architects for Peace President's report 2020

AFP was cited in this international conference as belonging in the lower, right quadrant - highly ethical, yet not influential. The Post COVID challenge for AFP is how to rise to the top, right quadrant - ethical and influential. 

Architects for Peace President's report 2020

 

Beatriz Maturana Cossio.  Founder and President
 
This time last year, bushfires raged across most of the Eastern seaboard of Australia as evidence of the ecological crisis while the economic success stories of  Paris, Hongkong and Santiago were each in their own form of social crisis. Then a global pandemic.
 
It’s been a year of suspended normality and we don’t yet know what the new normal will look like. We do now that the world’s population is now poorer than it was before 2020 and that the professions of the built environment and the urban planet face new challenges with the possibility of a new and better normality.

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Steering Committee Meeting - via Zoom

Saturday 24 October 8:00am AEST.  (Friday October 23, 6:00 PM Santiago) 

For any member wishing to attend below are the details. 

Anthony McInneny is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Architects for Peace

Time: Oct 23, 2020 06:00 PM Santiago

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78878422733?pwd=a1I1TFhNMThKN3pFZTdLZ2pHTFdadz09

Meeting ID: 788 7842 2733

Passcode: 87TPHM

Interventionist Prize Winner Regeneration: Marynes Ávila

Artist Statement

The current surreal times of isolation have humanity experiencing the blurring of boundaries between the public and private arenas. While we await for the re-­‐opening of public spaces, including government buildings, we are shifting to interpersonally connecting from the intimacy of our personal spaces through social media.

Regeneration is a response to this particular phenomenon. The work portrays a physical representation of the global profound realisation of our vital interdependence on others. Utilising blooming flowers emerging from a microscopic image of the Covid-­‐19 virus projected onto the façade of the Richmond Town Hall, the work treats enforced social distancing as a catalyst of individual and collective contemplation and growth, simultaneously emphasising the central role of government leadership during times of crisis.

During COVID 19, public space is not what it used to be. Without a public it becomes an A-public space. Architects for Peace called for entries in March 2020 for a projection art competition. Images and/or text were to simulate a projection onto the façade of the Richmond Town Hall, Victoria, Australia. Regeneration, by Marynes Avila was the winning entry.