“Monuments -Memorials” in Chile

Abstract

In Chile, the processes of historical memory have been related to the practices of public art and of city-making from its origins to the present day, distinguishing three great forms, each one directly linked to the historical, political and social processes that the country experienced. . Thus at the beginning we can appreciate the Commemorative statuary, with which the moral and historical ideals of this new republic are built in favor of their heroes immortalized in bronze a. republican idealizations that generate primary historical memories of Europeanist orientations, politically and aesthetically speaking. In second place and almost a century later, we can recognize the clear and strong influence that Mexican muralism had, as a new form of public art where the still pedagogical look was placed on the continent and its people, transmitting a popular memory with diffusion of Latin American and local ideals. Finally, with a third form of historical memory already directly linked to the concept of “symbolic reparation” of the democratic governments existing after the military dictatorship, which use public space as one of the supports for the development of post-memory. Carried out through the development of the memorial monument in the urban fabric, through these projects provide the community with physical and tangible milestones that symbolize this new democratic, egalitarian society based on respect for human rights.