Assistant Professor of Studio Art, Dr. Cristóbal Bianchi (Art & Design), together with the Colectivo Casa Grande, recently inaugurated the art installation Panóptico at the Palacio Pereira Art Gallery in Santiago, Chile.
Funded by a $25,000 grant from Chile's National Endowment for the Arts (FONDART), with additional support from the University of Illinois, the installation will be on view during September.
Panóptico commemorates the 52nd anniversary of the Chilean civic-military coup of September 11, 1973, which led the country into 17 years of dictatorship and repression. The installation traces the silhouette of a Hawker Hunter airplane, the same type of aircraft that bombed La Moneda in 1973, across the sky of Palacio Pereira’s central courtyard, using high-resistance, semi-transparent membranes stretched over a metal frame 11 meters high.
On the ground, a seven-meter-long structure holds a mirror engraved with the phrase “I will remain here,” taken from Salvador Allende’s final speech. The shifting weather and atmosphere of September constantly transform the work, altering how its shapes and reflections are perceived. No experience is ever the same: memory, like the sky, is in motion and transformation.
A sketch and rendering of the project accompany the exhibition, inviting visitors to reflect on history, surveillance, and the enduring impact of state violence.
Watch a render of this amazing project: here