The Siemens Stiftung Foundation initiated the project in Santiago as part of their series of Changing Places projects. To develop the proposal the foundation collaborated with the Consejo Nacional de la Cultura (Culture National Council) and the Fundación Patrimonio Creativo (Creative Heritage Foundation) and found sponsorship with Santiago de Chile’s Municipality, the Province Municipality, and the National Monument Council. The 30 artists were selected based on their experience with similar spaces, plus the social value their works could give to the space.
Some artists arrived weeks before the installation day to get to know the place and the local culture and create a more accurate response that integrated the community into their response. On the other hand, the spaces were selected based on their historical impact and were meant to be intervened in ways that enhanced their history or future potential.
All the buildings were chosen as references to the times before the coup d’etat in 1973. The idea was to frame the urbanisation changes the city had gone through over the years, but also to remember a past that was not hurtful and that could connect with today's life through contemporary art. Around the project, the organisers created multiple seminars addressing community engagement such as urban planning, community gardens, social transformation, and education programs.
The Program was divided into three main focuses: the first was ephemeral installations which were based on artistic installations in buildings, houses, old sites, and disused structures; the second one was temporary appropriations which made tangible and intangible knowledge transfer strategies materialised through workshops, talks symposia, drifts and guided tours; and lastly permanent appropriations, which sought to apply the strategy of achieving perpetuate actions, methodologies and infrastructures in the nodes identified to strengthen both social cohesion and the rescue of trades and practices that determined the strengthening of the social fabric of the selected neighbourhoods for the long run.
Changing Places / Espacios Revelados reactivated the cultural scene of the Yungay neighbourhood and its surroundings by bringing new perspectives and alternative initiatives to the local inhabitants. With all the work invested in the community, the historic sector was revived with artistic and cultural spaces. As the zone grew its potential, some historical businesses. The impact was especially reflected in the building of an artistic community, making this neighbourhood the new cultural centre of Santiago de Chile. According to the Gatopardo news, the cultural project has “... given visibility to a vulnerable zone to recuperate an important piece of the collective memory of the Chilean capital.”
Part of the proposal was to leave a permanent program that created the infrastructure and resources for the locals to develop, continuing to drive re-consolidation of the area, and sustain the historic memory of the city.
The artistic activation of Yungay has increased its tourism and bettered the area's economy. The initiative has inspired similar projects around the city such as FORO, an intervention that occurred with the collaboration of seven galleries that intended to bring attention to the urban changes of the city. It consisted of creating exhibitions inside an abandoned building that was about to be demolished. In terms of the social impact, Artishock (a contemporary art magazine) says the importance of the project lies in “The reaction to the current [in 2016] urban and social situation, where what obsolesce in addition to urban planning is the individual, finds in the self-management of communities new possibilities for social, political, economic, and cultural evolution.” The artistic interventions and collaboration among the locals of the community continue to grow thanks to the footprint that Changing Places / Espacios Revelados left on the historic zone of Santiago de Chile.
Siemens Stiftung is committed to sustainable social development. They focus on three key themes: Access to Essential Services, Connected Societies, and Climate & Sustainability. They adopt a proactive approach to shaping the transformations required to tackle these challenges.
By working with partners from the fields of Education, Social Entrepreneurship, and Arts & Culture, they reinforce collective learning and locally based, sustainable structures. Their projects and networks center around Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Since art has repeatedly motivated to work along the fault lines of society, Siemens Stiftung believes that confident cultural scenes have a decisive influence on sustainable development. Artists create spaces and spark debates in which a society communicates about itself and its future. Together with their partners, they try out new forms of community and make people curious about how art follows its own rules.
How does a city address the tension and conflict created by rapid economic, environmental, and societal shifts? How do residents create a sense of belonging to an urban space? The “Changing Places/Espacios Revelados” program revives and reimagines abandoned buildings and public spaces in South American cities. Artistic interventions create new perspectives on neighbourhoods and what it means to coexist in a city.
