DEGREES OF UNCERTAINTY: DIFFERENT RESILIENCES IN THE CITY OF SANTIAGO, CHILE
Exhibition project2021 / Curatiorial and building work
Location:Favara, ItalienCooperation:u Lab, Studio für Stadt und Raumprozesse, Galería Itinerante/Itinerant Gallery, School of Architecture, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC).
Diverse resilience in the city of Santiago de ChileFor “Countless Cities” Renato D'Alençon, Paola Alfaro d'Alençon and Alessandro Grossi with Galería Itinerante created the pavilion for the city of Santiago. The pavilion links the resilience of Chilean cities affected by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and tsunamis, with the pressing social injustice, power of the manifestations, protest, upheavals and transformations in the country. The work narrative embody seven sensitive moments in these processes: the apparent calm; the foreshadowing; the first rupture; the climax; assimilation; understanding and, finally, resilience. The pavilion was created as an immersive experience, composed with a sound piece by composer Jorge Pacheco and the arrangement of elements in the space, constructing a journey of scales and assimilation. The city of Santiago in Chile has different jet in coexistence evolving dimensions due to its tectonics, geographies and spatial inequity and social movements. In this place, earthquakes, alluviums, floods and big fires are already considered as 'known monsters'. The inhabitants has learned to deal with these monsters generating a constant state of alert to the threat and a growing resilient spirit. In another dimension - and throughout the country - manifestations have been accentuated in the last years. October 18th of 2019 was an iconic date. It started a widespread social awakening, triggered particularly by an increase in the cost of public transportation. But more deeply, motivated by a very long period of social inequity, corruption and delegitimization of government institutions. A new period of search for social justice has begun. Such period has a historical landmark - and perhaps a demonstration of a new civic exercise of resilience - the democratic rewriting of the political constitution. However, when citizens try to access information about these events and processes, obstacles, censorship, and / or content manipulation appear. All those factors generate a progressive distrust and disengagement, especially towards government, civil and public order authorities. It seems that accessible information is fragmented and disrupted by action of some determined people, and for their benefit. Then by, trying to put it together and make it coherent, people lose valuable execution and learning time for things to come. When the words cannot be read or heard clearly, the image give traces of a truth; light (and dark) sections; an ephemeral instant of certainty (and uncertainty), a limited frame (and infinite in the mind); many times so intentional, and that, crossed with other means of information. The biennial, inaugurated on 26 June 2021, is located in the cultural centre "Farm Cultural Park" in Favara, in the region of Sicily in Italy, and is open to the public.
Catalina Albornoz, Paola Alfaro D’Alençon, Renato D’Alençon, Macarena Diaz, Sebastián Gonzales, Alessandro Grossi, Gabriela Martinez, Sofía Morales, Roberto Moris, Jorge Pacheco, Francisca Peralta, Sebastián Rojas y Andrés Salazar.