LATIN AMERICAN CULTURE

AND IDENTITY

THIRD CHAPTER: “STREET

ART”
FIELD TRIP: MUSEO CIELO ABIERTO, VALPARAÍSO, CHILE

Professor: Manuel Casanuevas Iommi

Student: Daniella Molinari Cárdenas

 STREET ART AND AIM OF
THIS ASSIGNMENT
Graffiteros have always attempted to
create new ways to express their
works, denounce things that nobody
want to say or to realize, and adapt to
a globalizing society without losing
their identities. The continuation of
imperial thought processes and social
structures reflect themselves in the
street art of Chile.
w a s a b l e t o rea l i z e t h at c h i l ea n
cultural manifestations address issues
of indigenismo, syncretism, and
imperial political structures.
In the present assignment I chose
eight murals that caught my attention
during the field trip, that are going to
be analyzed under my point of view in
the next few pages.

As a summary of the field trip to

Museo Cielo Abierto in Valparaíso, I

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 INDEX
MARIO TORAL ……………………… 4
ROBERTO MATTA …………………. 5
RAMÓN VERGARA ………………… 6
RICARDO YRARRÁZAVAL ………… 7
WHAT IS REALITY? ………………… 8
GENUINE ……………………………. 9
EL DÍA DEL GANADO URBANO … 10
THE EYES OF THE CITY ………….. 11

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 MARIO TORAL
MUSEO CIELO ABIERTO, VALPARAÍSO: MURAL 11
“ Para los habitantes de las aguas y… de los cerros de este valle del paraíso “
This mural is the symbiosis of the
strictly figurative with mathematical
graphics.
Unexpected shapes and "mystery"
generate fantasies about an amalgam
of the known and the unknown. This
effect is achieved through defined
images with color degradation. The
a b i l i t y o f t h e “ v a n i s h e d ” e ff e c t ,
among others, makes the painter free
f ro m a l l j u d g m e n t s o f a c c e p t e d
conventional representations.
Toral's eyes are almost always plural.
This means that space is seen not
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only from the limited visual field of
one but of many.
This is one of the realities of
V a l p a r a í s o . To s i m u l t a n e o u s l y
accommodate such diverse people,
the mural would be representing all
those different points of view that
exist in the city.
Fo r m e , t h e d e l i b e r a t e c h a o t i c
distribution of the composition, gives
the viewer the freedom to choose its
focus of the mural, or, in the other
hand, gives the key focuses desired
exactly by the painter.
 ROBERTO MATTA
MUSEO CIELO ABIERTO, VALPARAÍSO: MURAL 10
Matta’s art shows a way of expression
in which logic gets lost in order to
reflect what he feels, expressing
himself more freely.
Each human figure that is present in
this mural is deformed. As we can see
the head of the human forms almost
disappear being the trunk the most
distinguishable part of the mural with
their extremities, which are the hands
with four fingers.
Undoubtedly, the artist is trying to
p o rt ra y h o w m a n k i n d i s l o o k i n g
increasingly as machines deforming
the figure and human life to the point
where it is difficult to differentiate
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between the one and the other, to
the extent that man is dependent on
the machines.
In my opinion, this work expresses
very well what’s been going on in the
world. Mankind has reached a point
in which we are really dependent on
machines that pollute and destroy
the environment. I cannot deny that
much of the technology has helped
many people, as regards to health
and lifestyle, but also that another
large part is used to make life more
comfortable and so to be able to lock
ourselves in a world created on a
false basis without communication,
without imagination and without
sharing with each other.
 RAMÓN VERGARA
MUSEO CIELO ABIERTO, VALPARAÍSO: MURAL 12
While analyzing this mural, I truly feel are representing the ones that are
that I’m staring at Valparaíso’s hills more forgotten by outsiders and by the
from a ship in the bay. The thing is that heads (leaders) of the city as well. In
for me, they aren’t just any hills in fact, is where most of “porteños” live,
Valparaíso; in fact, the artist through and they aren't as pretty and well
the colors he uses is trying to reveal maintained as the other ones. In my
some characteristics of them. opinion the red color used in this hills
represent also the people with less
In one hand, the yellowed-greened resources that live on them.
hills would represent in this case
“ C e r r o A l e g r e a n d C o n c e p c i ó n ”,
To finish, I would also like to mention
because this colors give this two hills
that the way the artist draw
attributes of life or tones of fertility.
Valparaíso’s hills, reminds me the
This is not a very crazy way of thinking,
tents of the circus, representing the
because this last ones mentioned are
magic that is felt while entering the
known to be the most visited hills by
city. Valparaíso itself is a big circus
tourists and daily visitors that don’t live
where we can find own expressions
in Valparaíso.
of the city mixing wonder, laughter
and tragedy at the same time.
On the other hand, the rest of the hills
in the mural red-orange-white colored,

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 RICARDO YRARRÁZAVAL
MUSEO CIELO ABIERTO, VALPARAÍSO: MURAL 8
His pictorial production is low but
very intense. The characters in the
painting are figures of rotund
volumes and distorted shapes that
re p re s e n t a rc h e t y p e s o f m o d e r n
society.
In other words, Yrarrázaval works
between the blurred, deleted or, out
of focus. Thus, it shows fleeting faces,
making their identity disappear.
With this last thing mentioned, the
artist reveals the importance that is
now given to appearances where
everything can be attributed to a
"pretty face". The artist then takes a
role of a silent observer,
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accumulating and building up faces
in his memory, paying attention to
their attitudes, for then to be able to
make a true synthesis of what can be
the man of today.
But the outline of the silhouette has
another purpose: to isolate what is
drawn alluding to the solitude of the
human being. The characters are not
incorporated into any interior or
geography; no landscapes or scenes;
they are not subject to time or place,
that deepens even more the
“solitude”. "It is the man in the
universe, because even if we have
family and friends, we are inherently
loners."
 WHAT IS REALITY?
MUSEO CIELO ABIERTO, VALPARAÍSO
When we talk about reality, the first
thing that comes to my mind is human
perception. It is a common thought
that our world’s perception is much
more complete than it really is. We feel
that we are recording what is
happening in our surroundings the
same way a video camera does, but
what really happens is very different.
In other words, our perception of
how we see the world is limited by
the characteristics of our brain, which
is responsible for filtering the reality
of what we perceive.
Our experience is a circle between
perception, action and memory
where the perception is guided, an
action is performed and a memory is
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s t o re d . I t i s a c i rc l e o f m u t u a l
influences and memories are
constantly changing our way of
perceiving the world. That is why
many times our brain constructs from
non-defined outlines, forms that do
not exist physically.
This is exactly what the artist is trying
to represent, in my opinion, trough this
mural. When the observer stares at it,
it ’s not able to observe concrete
figures. As mentioned before, the brain
constructs and completes from
different vertical lines concrete figures
like a big circle or squares; reminding
me also about Spinetta’s music, in
which he always starts with a nice
melody, but soon changes it to another
one, without completing any lasting
pattern.
 GENUINE
MUSEO CIELO ABIERTO, VALPARAÍSO
This mural is very odd because
t h ro u g h t h e h i s t o r y o f C h i l e o r
Valparaíso being more accurate, dark
skinned population was not common
like it was with the Portuguese in
Brazil.
To a n a l y z e t h i s m u r a l t h e n , i s
necessary to look trough it rather
than just observe the composition of
it. What I’m trying to say is that the
artist transmits the observer a
“feeling” more than a visual delight.
For me, the artist was trying to
represent what is genuine and honest
leaving all judgments aside. “Today’s
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world”, is almost everything about
appearances and in Chile,
specifically, about what others might
say about you.
This is why the artist illustrates a dark
skinned girl, who is completely
comfortable with herself and that
isn’t afraid of judgments that other
people might have about her.
An interesting thing to observe, is that
the precision of the techniques the
artist uses, allows the viewers see the
girl almost in a 3d dimension, adding
more reality to it and its meaning.
EL DÍA DEL GANADO URBANO
MUSEO CIELO ABIERTO, VALPARAÍSO
Th i s p i e c e i s t i t l e d “ E l D í a D e l
Ganado Urbano”, and it translates to
“The Day Of The Urban Livestock”.
This mural in particular shows the
typical day of a person living in an
urban city. It says: 6:40 wake up, 8:30
work, 12:00 eat garbage, 6:50
consume, 9:15 entertainment.
As we simply can observe, the piece
acts as a social commentary to the
urban life, and suggests that urban
habitants are all just livestock
working for the system.
Moreover, the concept used in this
mural of animals (livestock), shows
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what has happen to humankind with
globalization: it has been
standardized.
In my opinion, this is mural is
shouting for it to be listened for
those ho haven’t gotten into the
system yet, and for those who are in
it all ready, to bring them back to
their true originality.
This piece is extremely anti-
capitalism and provides an
alternative discourse on our lives. It is
a non-conventional message that
uses a non-conventional medium to
express itself.
THE EYES OF THE CITY
MUSEO CIELO ABIERTO, VALPARAÍSO
The lifts of Valparaíso are an essential
part of the city. Because of the
steepness of the local hills, it
becomes difficult and long-lasting
communication from various sectors
on foot or by other means of public
transport, so the elevators fulfill the
function of quickly communicate the
upper part of the city with the lower
or, in this case, center part of it.
For mi this mural reflects the magical
mark of the lifts in the city that
consist in a unique mean of transport
in the world in this context. They are
the result of the geographical
language Valparaíso.
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The notorious thing about this mural,
is that the artist tried to communicate
that it is through these means of
transport where you are able to see
the heart of the city and its essence.
According to this, we can observe a
b i rd f l y i n g n ex t t o t h e e l e v at o r
showing that this last one mentioned,
gives a completely different
perspective of the city from the
heights.
To finish, I would like to say that the
“eye” in this mural also reflects that
the real “life” of Valparaíso, resides in
the hills, and not in the main city.