Paint and Struggle: Mural Arts in Post-dictatorial Chile

This event is FREE with donations of any size welcome! 
Doors open at 7pm, Event starts at 7:30pm. 

Join activist/muralist Camilo Diaz, representing UMLEM, and Documentary filmmaker Kelly Bauer at La Peña for a speaking tour about their experiences in actvism and art in post-dictatorship Chile.

The goal of this tour is to share experiences and build solidarity with other artists, activists and organizations via conversations about muralism in each others’ communties and the presentation of a short documentary about UMLEM by filmmaker Kelly Bauer.

One of the many expressions of the Chilean radical left movement is a group of muralists known as the UMLEM. Their goal is to create social and political change via collective art projects that reclaim public space and document the local political struggles of the community. Their murals are often painted on union halls, universities, neighborhoods and areas of conflict.

Camilo Diaz has been a militant of the radical left since 2006, participating in several student and social organizations as well as part of the development of the Chilean communist liberatory project.

A little history on Chile’s post-dictatorship politics:
In 1990, the US-supported Pinochet dictatorship in Chile came to an end after 17 years of violent state repression. While Chile transitioned back to democracy on a superficial political level, the constitution written under Pinochet remained unchanged and continued to deepen the neo-liberal economic policies inspired by Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys.

The first generation born post-dictatorship has grown up during a time of increasing national disillusionment with electoral politics, the state and global capitalism. In response to the false hopes promised under democracy, this same generation began to organize as high school students and is responsible for the massive student movements in 2006. This movement transformed into the nation-wide demand for free higher education when the same generation of politicized students entered the university system in 2011.