This research explores the landscape of the protest through the graphic interventions performed during the social outbreak demonstrations of October 2019 in Baquedano Square, Santiago. Drawing on archaeological and ethnographic methods, it analyses the graffiti that the protesters produced between January and March 2020 on the walls and monuments. Material changes, including their characteristics and patterns, are identified, and correlated with the scene. It is concluded that beyond the anger, violence and destruction of public monuments and buildings, the visual interventions appeal to a narrative that, like a mosaic, announces the actions of resistance to the prevailing social model. Above all, it celebrates the moral principles of respect and the sense of social justice. Finally, it is asserted that through this celebration and performative exercise, a protest landscape emerges whose colourfulness and youthful aesthetics are imposed on the monochrome of the ruins and rubble of the heritage buildings and monuments.
Keywords:
landscape, social outbreak, monument, iconography, protest
Márquez, F., Colimil, M., Jara, D., Landeros, V., & Martínez, C. L. (2020). Protest landscape in Dignity Square on Santiago, Chile. Revista Chilena De Antropología, (42), 112–145. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-1472.2020.60487
