“Desobediencia es habitar la revuelta” (Grafiti, Santiago de Chile, noviembre 2019)

Revisitando la rebelión de los artefactos en el Chile del siglo XXI

Abstract

The Chilean social uprising of October 2019 led to intense, massive protests against the abuses people experienced under the modern neoliberal system. Several everyday artifacts and technologies became part of the protests. Santiago was constantly transformed at a vertiginous rate by ephemeral events that left low-permanence material traces. Part of the graffiti, flags, sculptures, and clothing alluded to Pre-Hispanic populations bearing witness to an apparent transversal solidarity to denounce the temporal depth of abuses against Indigenous peoples that continue to exist. Drawing on this social and political contingency, I identify some traits that contribute to the long-term Pre-Columbian art/archaeology debate explored in this special issue.