CENTINELA Online

When: Saturday 1st of May – Friday 8th of may 2021
When: online, in this web.

Film by Galería CIMA / Santiago de Chile (2021)

The Museum of Democracy publishes online the video installation CENTINELA, by Galería CIMA, on a symbolic date worldwide for protests: the first of May. A surveillance camera from inside Galería CIMA is focused on the Plaza Italia/”Plaza Dignidad” (Italy/Dignity Square) in downtown Santiago, the epicentre of the social revolts. Galería CIMA makes a special edition of its more than 10,000 hours of uninterrupted filming via YouTube for the Museum of Democracy. Through a program covering 23 relevant milestones of the public demonstrations between 2019 and 2020 in this militant square, this document highlights the role of the gallery as a tool of public utility under the slogan “TO OBSERVE, COMMUNICATE AND PERSIST IS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE”.

MILESTONES
24 | 10 | 2.019 On the seventh day of the social outbreak, the CENTINELA camera begins its transmissions from the Plaza de la Dignidad through the YouTube channel of Galería CIMA.
25 | 10 | 2.019 The largest demonstration in Chile takes place, with the participation of more than 1.2 million people in Santiago and more than 3 million throughout the country. The slogans are aimed at ending the policies inherited from the military dictatorship, which ended “democratically” 30 years ago.
04 | 10 | 2.019  Two policewomen are hit by Molotov cocktails in the middle of a demonstration in Plaza Dignidad.
08 | 11 | 2.019 A banner reading “Plaza de la Dignidad” is hoisted for the first time. On the same day, Gustavo Gatica loses his sight when he is hit by police repression tools.
09 | 11 | 2.019 President Sebastián Piñera says he has received information that foreign governments have intervened here.
12 | 11 | 2.019  The light collective TRIMEX performs a laser projection on the buildings around the Plaza de la Dignidad, in allusion to the increase in victims of eye trauma.
21 | 11 | 2.019 Amnesty International publishes its report after observing the violence in the area and states, “The deliberate policy of harming demonstrators points to the commander’s responsibility.”
25 | 11 | 2.019 After an emergency meeting, the political parties agree to call a referendum on the drafting of a new constitution and sign the “Agreement for Peace.” On the same day, the Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich, affirms that “our health system is one of the best and most efficient on the planet.”
26 | 11 | 2.019 Fabiola Campillay is blinded by the police in the early hours of the morning. Together with Gustavo Gatica, they become icons of human rights violations.
27 | 11 | 2.019 Mauricio Fredes is electrocuted to death when he falls into an electrified pit, while police repression is exercised in the middle of a demonstration in the Dignidad-Alameda axis. The same day the cultural center “Cine Arte Alameda” burns down.
29 | 11 | 2.019 The feminist collective LAS TESIS performs the intervention “The Rapist in Your Way,” a performance that has been replicated by women around the world.
06 | 12 | 2.019 The light collective formed by Daniela Valenzuela and Anonilux performs the intervention “Lights for Memory” as a tribute to the 27 people who lost their lives to the repressive measures of the state.
11 | 12 | 2.019 The constitutional accusation against the Minister of the Interior, Andrés Chadwick, is approved.
01 | 01 | 2020 The people of Chile gather in the Plaza de la Dignidad to celebrate the New Year, as a sign of optimism in the face of the reform process taking place. From the Galería CIMA, illuminations are projected on the Plaza and interventions are carried out together with the collectives Daniela Valenzuela/Anonilux and Delight Lab.
28 | 02 | 2020 The Violeta Parra Museum burns down during the demonstrations in the Plaza de la Dignidad.
08 | 03 | 2020 The gathering of more than two million women in the Plaza de la Dignidad becomes a worldwide reference for the feminist struggle.The gathering of more than two million women in the Plaza de la Dignidad becomes a worldwide reference for the feminist struggle.
21 | 03 | 2020 The Minister of Health, Jaime Mañalich, pronounces his famous phrase in relation to the covid-19 pandemic “what happens if the virus mutates and becomes a good person?”.
03 | 04 | 2020 President Sebastián Piñera strolls through the Plaza de la Dignidad while Santiago is under a strict lockdown.
18 | 05 | 2020 The light collective Delight Lab projects the word “hunger” on the Telefonica Tower in Santiago, alluding to the solidarity soup kitchens that have spontaneously formed in vulnerable areas of the city.
24 | 06 | 2020  Day of the Indigenous Peoples, an issue repeatedly addressed in the national contingency due to the territorial conflicts that have been dragging on since colonization.
25 | 06 | 2020 Santiago is under quarantine.
25 | 10 | 2020 The national referendum results with a large majority in the drafting of a new Constitution under the direction of a Constitutional Convention composed of democratically elected members. The Plaza de la Dignidad once again became the center of celebration, and from Galería CIMA the word RENACE (“be reborn”) was projected by the Delight Lab collective.
02 | 11 | 2020 The Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Consuelo Valdés, affirms that “a peso put in culture will not be put in another program or need of the citizens.”

Galería CIMA / Santiago de Chile (Chile)

We are a cultural space located in Plaza Dignidad. After the social outburst that led to the paralysis of all our activities, we installed a camera that has uninterruptedly transmitted what happens in the square, consolidating itself as a truthful and impartial coverage of the demonstrations, where several milestones have been recorded, such as the historic march of October 25th, New Year 2020, and 8M.

Team: Trinidad Lopetegui, Daniel Aguayo Mozó, Sebastián Rojas, Harold Illanes