Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MAPS-URBE (The invisible city. Mapuche mapping of Santiago de Chile.)

Teaser

The proposed research explores experiences of urban space among young indigenous Mapuche living in Santiago de Chile, in order to make visible indigenous subjects whose daily lives, collective concerns and social circumstances are often relegated to the margins of policy...

Summary

The proposed research explores experiences of urban space among young indigenous Mapuche living in Santiago de Chile, in order to make visible indigenous subjects whose daily lives, collective concerns and social circumstances are often relegated to the margins of policy making and public interest. It seeks to research the impact of displacement and social exclusion on indigenous youth, as well as offer a means of intervention. The project developes a series of collaborative and participatory methods, including mapping, video and exhibition making, to offer a better understanding of indigenous experiences of the city. The outcome of the collaborative research will be used to address the relationship with non- Mapuche citizens through two exhibitions (in Chile and Europe), offering young Mapuche an opportunity to make an active intervention into public discourse. The aim is to not only enhance understanding of the indigenous relationship and experience of the urban context but to offer an ethical framework of empowerment that places collaborative goals at the centre of anthropological research. Establishing a field of inquiry that is of concern, interest and relevance to the research participants, it will allow them to actively shape the project’s directions, significantly to raise public awareness concerning the need of engaged anthropology beyond academic environment.

As such, the outlined aim of the project can be divided in three overall objectives:
Ob.1: To offer a better understanding of young Mapuche perceptions of the capital and it’s representations through a participatory mapping process.
Ob.2: To address the relationship with older and non-Mapuche by opening up a dialogue through two exhibitions that will display a final Mapurbe Map of Santiago, to the citizens of the Chilean capital and in Europe.
Ob.3: To co-construct an innovative methodology, drawing together different methods including participatory mapping, storytelling and visual anthropology as a means of dissemination that will give the project an extended public life.

Work performed

The work performed from the beginning of the project, seen against the three main project objectives, can be summarised as follows:

Ob.1:
The participatory mapping process has been taken forward within a group formed by around 15 young Mapuche living in Santiago. Actively engaging with the space of the city, and with a broad use of mapping as highly participative and creative process, a space for the sharing of meanings, memories and imaginations was opened up, thus contributing to a better understanding of the Mapuche interpretation and representation of the capital.
Ob.2:
The final exhibition in Santiago has been opened between the 20th of December 2018 and the 20th of January 2019. In addition, a site-specific performance ‘Santiago Waria, pueblo grande de Winkas’ addressing the Mapuche migration and history within the capital has been staged on the 27 and 28 of December and on the 17, 18, 19 of January 2019. In line with the collaborative nature of the project, this performance was proposed by the research participants and constructed with the group, under the expert guide of the theatre director Roberto Cayuqueo Martínez. As such, both the exhibition and the performance substituted the proposed ‘final Mapurbe Map of Santiago’, representing the results of the shared mapping process. Both the exhibition and the performance were successful means of dissemination, generating a space for visibility and debate.
Ob.3:
Through both the training received at the hosting institution and the research process, the researcher has been working together with the research participants toward the co-construction of an innovative methodology, drawing on different methods and disciplines. In particular, the strength of what has been done so far consists in the inclusion of arts methodologies, especially site-specific theatre performance.

Publications outputs: one academic article, written with Roberto Cayuqueo Martínez, is now in press with the journal Entanglements (May 2019); other pieces are in the writing or reviewing process.

Final results

With the aim of offering a better understanding of the Mapuche perceptions of the Chilean capital, the research process has addressed the relationship and interpretations of Santiago by young Mapuche, collaboratively and critically engaging in the process of representing the city. Following this main objective, the research has been taken forward as a critical mapping practice, engaging with different practice-based methodologies and disciplines (visual anthropology, participatory mapping, site-specific theatre and performance). A first approximation to the shared definition of ‘mapping’ as a concept and as a practice emerged as an active and creative way of addressing the material and immaterial space of the Chilean capital. In this vain, the participants proposal was to leave aside the collection of their life histories and biographies, opting instead for collective discussion and brainstorming during workshops and meetings, claiming to be considered not as ‘describing informants’ but as ‘interpreting subjects’. The elaboration of the shared definition of mapping has taken a more operative turn, being addressed as collective and individual creations engaging with the city. As such, instead of the shared ethnographic diary and the digital archives of personal biographies and storytelling tours, the produced artistic works have become the core of the research, resulting in ten artefacts, objects and photographic installations. This kind of shifts and changes were fundamental for the process of collaborative designing an innovative methodology and for the researcher own enhancement of expertise in collaborative and interdisciplinary research.

As projects outputs, both the exhibition and the performance can be considered successful means of dissemination. Constitute an important exchange in terms of interdisciplinary expertise, and they have also contributed to inter-sectorial collaborations between the academic world and cultural organisations and figures (such as artistic production, sound design, artists). The involved audience was both of Mapuche origin and not, and the project actively engaged with general public, making its results widely known and contributing to the research’s understanding outside the Academy, thus generating an important impact in the society at large.

As for the academic dissemination, seminars and lectures have been held at the Pontificia Universidad Católica and in international conferences, and publications are currently in the making.

Concerning the expected results until the end of the project, they can be listed as follows:

>The exhibition in Europe will probably take place in Brussels in September.
>The final academic conference about the project at Manchester University will be organised for next January-February 2019.
>Publications: see Part B of the report for more details.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.mapsurbe.com.