Bloody eye sockets, defaced statues: the visual legacy of Chile's unrest [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Camilo Vergara

Tue 25 Feb 2020 06.00 ESTLast modified on Tue 25 Feb 2020 08.06 EST

I arrived in Santiago in December of 2019, two months after the start of mass protests that have rocked the nation’s largest cities. The unexpected burst of anger and violence has left much of the country bitter and uncertain about its identity and future.

Unlike other photographers whose main interest has been crowds of protesters, I have photographed the cumulative effects of the events: the diversity of graphic expressions, damage, makeshift repairs, and the armoring of doors and windows of commercial establishments with steel plates and plywood in the urban centers of the 11 cities and towns that I visited.

The downtowns I documented were chaotic and in disarray. I saw a cathedral’s front covered with tin. Sealed department stores welcomed people to shop by entering though tiny openings surrounded by signs saying “abierto”. Empty pedestals and defaced statues were pervasive.

Monuments such as the statue in Concepción of Pedro de Valdivia, the first royal governor of Chile, have been toppled and are waiting to be repaired or discarded, while many others have been almost completely graffitied over. The protesters are selective, however; statues honoring a voluntary fireman in Valparaíso and Santiago have been spared.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/25/chile-photographs-protest-statues-graffiti