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Paper short abstract:

Drawing on collaborative ethnography and co-curation with indigenous Mapuche artists, this paper asks if and how established and institutionalised modes of remembrance can be questioned, undertaking the challenge of a redefinition of the political and poetical boundaries of ethnographic knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

Moving from collective creative work, the exhibition MapsUrbe: The invisible City (December 2018 – January 2019) staged the artistic creations of a group of young Mapuche artists addressing the politics and history of the indigenous diaspora in the capital Santiago (Chile). Engaging with urban space materiality and the trajectories shaped by displacement, migration, and the re-building of homes and selves within the city, the exhibition explored subversive aesthetics and political imaginations, crafting alternative spatialities and temporalities. Drawing on family memories, opaque remembrances of a lost land and stories of pain and endurance, the artworks disrupted the linear unfolding of history, allowing subterranean narratives to emerge and playing with unexpected connections and routings.

Building on two years of fieldwork and a collaborative ethnography with Mapuche artists and activists, the paper elaborates on the articulation of meanings conveyed by the artistic gesture of ‘performing the Mapuche city’, interrogating the possibilities of a redefinition of practices of curating within collaborative and collective artistic project that aim at opposing dominant historical narratives. By reflecting on an experience of collaborative ethnography and co-curation, it asks if and how these practices question established and institutionalised modes of remembrance, at the same time undertaking the challenge of a redefinition of the political and poetical boundaries of ethnographic knowledge.