Santiago 2 day 5

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 I am so ready to move on, but I need to wait for my flight tomorrow night. So,I have all day today and tomorrow to continue my exploration of Santiago.

My nose always does it's thing in the morning, but I suspect that I have a cold coming on. That is not surprising, the weather has been cool and I've been having a hard time staying warm. Rain is forcast for today and tomorrow, that is not going to help.

Going out this morning, I take the subway planning to get off at Plaza de Armas, one of the major plazas of the city. 

The Palacio de Moneda, Santiago
Getting off the subway, I start retracing some of the steps from the walking tour I did earlier with a guide. I wanted to revisit some of the places including  the presidential palace (Palacio de la Moneda)to more fully take in and visualize events going back the coup of 1973.  I took my time there just sitting on a planter wall. Palacio de la Moneda translates to something like the Money Palace. This is because the palace was originally the Federal mint for Chile. This was also the reason that palace survived the attacks of the coup. Constructed as the federal mint, the walls are exceptionally thick.

The palace really doesn't have much buffer zone around it. The palace occupies a full city block. In the front, on the side of the Presidents office it is probably only about 50 feet. On the sides only about 10' and on back about 20'. All sides have guards posted to make sure everyone respects the "portable" barriers.



Behind the palace is the Centro Cultura de Moneda. This center is not a typical museum with permanent exhibits. The center provides a space for temporay exhibits and installations. 


This first exhibit that I went to was memorializing social unrest. More specifically the unrest leading to the expulsion of the dictator Pinoche in Chile. A few of the installations paying homage to the victims of the Pinche regime. So the theme was quite revolutionary. 

This is the not the first time I have seen this type of installation. Remember, days earlier I had visited the Human Rights Musem here in Santiago.

The second display titled, "Arte Joven, Premio Municipal", featured more abstract pieces and installations. Some also having societal focus as the underlying theme.

One piece was a dog laying down, completely woven with basket type material. It was accompanied by a video display of the this piece laying on the side of the road with traffic passing by.




Another interesting piece was a very light fabric with a design. The piece was lit by direct lighting that cast a shadow on the wall. The fabric material and design was so light weight that I didn't at first see the design. The first thing I saw was the shadow, then started looking for the source of the shadow.

This installation encourages interaction

A third piece was an interactive piece that incouraged people to walk through the installation. Doing so, moved the arms of the display that caused weights to ring bells and ceramic pieces and also activate lights within the display.

The pieces on display here ended up being one my favorite visits.

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