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Photographic installation by Bastián Cifuentes @periodistafurioso .  This is the result of a photographic report in which the author explores the background stories of those who wear a hood over their faces to protest on the streets.

Among the main arguments of the hooded demonstrators are the protection of their identity, their integrity, and their families, as well as to prevent retaliation for their actions at their jobs. They protect themselves from an oppressive system because they cannot protest freely in an allegedly democratic country. Finally, each hood is altered by its users who give them a glimpse of their identity to foreground its artistic and political struggle.

There is an element in this installation that invites us to actively be part of it: a mirror. It is the same size as the photographs of the installation so that anyone can stand in front of it and say “I also wear a hood to fight”.

Sculpture that honours a black stray dog named “cop-killer” by the students who led the student protests back in 2011 asking for free and quality education.

The sculpture was originally created by the visual artist Marcel Solá @marcelsolaart , who built it out of recycled debris from protests. It was first installed on 15 November 2019 outside Salvador Metro station, in response to the Political Peace Agreement reached by the Parliament to appease the social revolt.

The sculpture was attacked several times. It was attacked with clubs, painted over, and it was even burned down by right-wing extremists on 27 November, leaving only its metallic internal structure intact. The structure was then spontaneously filled with flowers and green leaves by hundreds of people.

After it was burned down, Solá asked two renowned artists from Patio de Arte @patiodearte , Fernando de Calisto and Jaime Torres to work on a more solid and durable metallic layer from the original structure. This is how the sculpture has continued to be present in different regions and cities, becoming a symbol of the social revolt.

The stray dog represents Chileans’ own mixed-race origins. Strays abound our streets and they represent the endurance to survive abandonment, abuse, indifference, and discrimination, an analogy to the conditions of Chilean society. This is why the sculpture has resonated and strengthened this sense of belonging among so many people.

The sculpture was subject to further attacks afterwards: it was dragged in the streets tied to an SUV and burned a second time. Here it is showing its scars in the museum, as a result of embodying the social demands and the social justice sought by the Chilean people.

A set of totems made by Colectivo Originario, a wood carving workshop led by Machupe sculptor Antonio Paillafil.

Each of these protective totems represent a specific territory in the country, illustrating their Amerindian culture: Petroglif, a Diaguita shaman from Tilama; Domomamüll, or wooden woman in Mapudungun, shows a chemamüll Mapuche sculpture; and the Selk´Nam Spirit, the incarnation of the peoples from Tierra del Fuego. Their purpose was to make indigenous peoples visible and to promote the creation of a plurinational state to grant them sovereignty.

The first sculpture –which still has visible marks of having been burned– portrays the shaman from Tilama, based on the Diaguita petroglyph in the north (Norte Chico). The totem is composed of three main elements: its head represents the Sun deity Inti, its heart represents a spiritual portal, and its abdomen represents a flower, a symbol of fertility.

Domomamüll –domo: woman; and mamüll: wood– represents the feminine essence, which links nature and farming. Its meaning foregrounds the symbolic essence of the feminine and its strength. It is this energy that connects us with Nature and allows us to live harmoniously in it; it helps us to be reborn, create meaningful familial bonds, and become better people. That is the symbolism that matters.

The Selk’Nam Spirit is not an indigenous totem, but it was included as a way to represent the people from the furthest south and to visualize the genocide they were subjected to. They belong to the history we cannot forget, and the sculpture challenges us not to deny the past and to honour and acknowledge our origins, practices that must be present in our education.

These sculptures were installed and remained at Plaza Dignidad for many months. They were the epicentre of various rogations and encounters to vindicate the role of our indigenous communities.

Sculpture that honours the first line of resistance made by artist and designer Gary Beltrán @braindead. It consists of the head of a mannequin found by the artist in Vicuña Mackenna Street after a mass demonstration. Inspired by his knowledge of construction skills, the artist resignifies this fragment of the body. He covers the mannequin’s torso with plaster showing a female hooded demonstrator emerging from multiple empty tear gas canisters illustrating their endurance in the social revolt.

Stencil made by @ricardo.pues. It represents the fight sexual dissidences have held against their persecution, discrimination, and violence against them.

As a museum, we support sexual dissidences and their demands to be recognized in the writing of the new constitution to protect their civil and social rights.

This shield belongs to a volunteer first responder from Voluntarios Salud Chile (a brigade set up at Ex Arte Alameda Cinema). While tending a wounded demonstrator during a demonstration, the shield was hit by two tear gas canisters, rendering it useless.

To honour the commitment of volunteer first respondents at protests and demonstrations, and to illustrate how serious police brutality against these responders truly was, the visual artist and photographer Pablo Zamorano, @locopek set up a photographic exhibition with the rescuers using the shield as support.

The attack that destroyed the shield was on 10 January 2020.

The photograph shows the MP Brigade being attacked by the police on 19 February 2020.

This is a video that shows the exact moment the canisters impacted the shield:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17YjmPJxb-YuWyLCzXYKEq3HNoi4JuGwH/view?usp=sharing

And this video shows the attack to the MP Brigade:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JAEnaYZCK_k2ue4cizCSNbO8kyOeGTUg/view?usp=sharing

Collective artwork led by @bordandoresistencia commissioned by the Museo del Estallido Social. This piece -composed of various integrated embroidered contributions- illustrates the diversity of social demands and struggles in the country such as the climate crisis, gender violence, the deprivatization of the access to water, resisting agroecology, among others.