3lecJessicaScimeca
I went to see the El Imaginario Historico Cultural de la dictadura militario chilena, which means "The Imaginary Cultural History of the military dictatorship of Chile."
- In this particular lecture, Gonzalo Leiva tells us of the history of Chile during 1973-1989, and how dictatorship through the country would raise and fall. It also was shown that many art photographers used pictures to remind people of this tragic dictatorship. Levia researches on cultural experiences during that time. For him today, since there is a woman president representing Chile, he respectful says good morning ladies and gentlemen in both the masculine and feminine Spanish. He wanted to be able to recognize both of them separately because he finds that important to him. During the time of this tragedy, there were a group of artists against the dictatorship. The artists of that time wanted to express the conflict in there art. Marxism inspired a bunch of artists, in a group called the Popular Unity. After Salvador Vendez won the election for president from the popular vote, a four phases encountered the country.
- The first phase, consider to be the worst out of all the phases because the dictatorship wanted the country clean by getting rid of Marxism. They would torture, murder, and exile people in order to cleanse the supposed plague of the country. The government soon made a "black list" that contained the people that had to disappear. Also, stereotypes were more noticeable. Man couldn't have long hair and women couldn't wear pants. If they were to be caught, officers would simple fix the problem by cutting the man's hair or turning the woman's pants into a skirt. Most presidents or officials of the president were considered to be military. They would set the rules and activities. The press was also limited in censorship. As for artists, they were either exiled or arrested for there work.
- In the second phase, (1976-1983) there was free marketing models. People's bodies were being found, when the government told the people that they were missing people. The government also didn't even recognize the deaths. Not only that, but most of the government did the killings. So they knew, but wouldn't admit to the people. In 1982, protests began to start against the dictatorship. A vanguard was put together and created a scene with poets, and artists. There purpose was to create new meanings for the crumbling society. One of those artists, Eugenio Dittborn created a metaphor by showing torture. One picture shows a person drowned in a swimming pool. Other photos were photos of the supposed missing people that were killed.
- In the third phase consisted of creating new laws and agencies. The regime was facing crisis and the people were suffering from high levels of unemployment. There was also a lot of oppression from universities as well. The dictators, however, tried to leg mate the present.
- In the fourth and final phase, the dictatorship fell, but there were still many economic problems. Social organizations began to grow more. The pressure of the protests finally got to the government.
- During the time there were many woman photographers, who wanted to express the man of this time period. One of them was Leonora Vicuna. She called Chile a grey society, so she did a lot of her photos in black and white. However, even though it’s grey, she doesn't want it to be, so she would paint on top of the photos. Most of her work had pictures of bars, native people, and conversations. You also got the feeling of great melancholy, and experience the pain of loss visually.
- Another photographer was Kena Lorenzi, who lived in poor neighborhoods and where many protests were. Photos were mostly of people's positions and taking photos of a psychological perspective.
- Helen Hugh was also a photographer, who took pictures of people, the moment they got arrested. She wanted to try and help Chile rights and show the oppression on protests.
Artists attempted to unify there imaginary of the dictatorship but failed. Dictators tried to discipline artists but artists used strategies to denounce the violence, to create new meanings.
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