Guillermo Núñez’s visual intervention takes as its starting point his set of premonitory drawings published in a collection entitled ‘Archivo de la Memoria’ (Archive of Memory) that were made in the months prior to the 1973 coup d’état in Chile. The drawings capture both the signs of hope that emerged during what were to be the last months of the left-wing Unidad Popular coalition, such as a draft of the mural that Núñez created for the emblematic UNCTAD III building constructed during Allende’s government with the contributions by many artists, as well as the imminence of the violence that would follow via depictions of police brutality. This set of drawings allows contemporary audiences to connect with the experiences and consequences of the beginning of the dictatorship in 1973. By engaging with Núñez’s ‘Archivo de la Memoria’, fifty years after this rupture in Chile, memories, contemporary reflections, and acts of agency unfold across generations.

Introduced by Paz Guevara