Opening times:
The exhibition at the National Fine Arts Museum (MNBA) in Santiago, which will be open until March 2018, is one of the thematic exhibitions that the MNBA regularly organizes as a means of showing works from its collection that are not always on public display. In this case, it includes 140 works, from the Colonial period through to the present day, and seeks to foster dialogue about how Chileans see themselves and their history.
“Under Suspicion” by Bernardo Oyarzún.
The exhibition begins with a painting by Pedro Lira (1845-1912) of the foundation of Santiago and the photographic installation “Under Suspicion” by Bernardo Oyarzún (1963- ). While the latter is a reflection on racism and classicism in modern Chile, the Lira painting shows conquistador Pedro de Valdivia on Santiago’s Santa Lucía Hill indicating the site for the city’s foundation, watched by indigenous leader, Huelén Huala.
This is the starting point for a reflection of how a nation is constructed with a view to the community’s common good, understood as a set of values and rules that govern individual and collective well-being. The exhibition also includes references to the material and symbolic goods that, over the course of the country’s history, have been used to represent local idiosyncrasies and foster a sense of belonging. It comprises the following sections:
- Historical events that have marked a turning point in the individual and collective life of the country’s inhabitants
- Anonymous inhabitants or, in other words, people such as agricultural laborers, soldiers and fishermen who have played a role in the nation’s construction from outside the public sphere
- Historical figures who have played an important role in public life or as members of the elite
- Territory, including representations of the Chilean landscape
- Public spaces, including streets, building and public squares in which the collective life of the country has been played out.
Artists represented in the exhibition include Carlos Altamirano, José Balmes, Gracia Barrios, Roser Bru, Paz Errázuriz, José Gil de Castro, Voluspa Jarpa, Juan Francisco González, Arturo Gordon, Pedro Lemebel, Gonzalo Mezza, Alfredo Valenzuela Puelma, Johann Moritz Rugendas, Thomas Somerscales, Luis Poirot and Raúl Zurita.
