Stencils - Ct´d

Santiago is an absolute gem in terms of wall-stencils. I have now collected over 500 fisheye-images of stencils in this city alone and I have yet to venture out to the larger suburbs. The presence of these stencils is a very good reflection of the mindset of the local twenty-something generation. They grew up in the aftermath of the Pinochet regime, coming of age in a backdrop of a re-emerging democracy. And the views of our peers here are fascinating and challenging, to say the least.

The group I have been spending most of my time with these last two weeks, consists of a haphazard mix of local chilean students, a French-Brazilian professor of Physics and several American and European backpackers. While the group is generally up for a whole lot of fun and mischief, some days, our outings turn into very heated debates that are never quite settled when we head back to our respective "homes" in the wee hours of the morning.

It is challenging. I realise that while I am fairly well read and educated, my opinions and thoughts are very much set against a sheltered european upbringing. And suddenly I find myself in a country that is still very much dealing with a very brutal recent past. Where 20,000 people were slaughtered in the national sports stadium just a little over 20 years ago. Due to lack of funding, the city has not been able to tear down the stadium or re-build a new one, so all the big sport events are played in the very same spot where many lost fathers, sons, sisters... It´s that violent schizophrenic clash between a rapid evolution towards regained freedom & normality and an unprocessed & unvindicated past.

- Stencil of Pinochet: "¿No me acuerdo?" (I don´t remember)-

Friday night, after several hours of silliness and dancing at a club, we were suddenly all desperately trying to put the world to rights. My American friends gave a stunning proof of insight into their own situation and a rather grim account of how their own beliefs and ideals are gradually shattered to pieces. My chilean friends and I discussed at length the mal-alignment between socialist ideals and socialist practice and we basically concluded that perhaps there no longer is such a thing as a socialist concept, for it´s pretty much fragmented and bastardized. While we´ve all had such nights, the nights I´m having are different for one reason only. We no longer stop at criticisms. We try to move beyond it. For criticism in itself solves nothing. It´s those elusive alternatives we need to pin down. And for the first time in my life, I´m transgressing the line of negatives into a more pro-active way of thinking. These people here are teaching me. Noam Chomsky once said that while he gives talks all over the world, it is only those in the western world that have the ordacity to ask him: "But what can WE do?". Indeed here, that question is simply ridiculed.

On a slightly different note. While off out stencil-hunting yesterday, I bumped into a guy who was doing the same. We got chatting and I am now invited to his exposition of Santiago Street Art next Friday. And because I gave him a few tips as to where to find the more political stencils, I will get in for free. I´ll be seriously jealous if his collection turns out much bigger than mine ;)