Conversations. Claudia Zaldívar. Museum of Solidarity

The Museum of Solidarity is an exercise in institutional experimentation and a historical episode that is key to understanding the new maps and cultural networks that were alien to the centres of power during the Cold War. The origins of the Museum stem from Salvador Allende’s invitation to a group of intellectuals in 1971 to know about and report the changes developed by his government.

After assembling a collection of unique pieces that included works by Sol LeWitt, Frank Stella, Jorge Oteiza, Eduardo Chillida, Joan Miró, Antonio Dias, David Alfaro Siqueiros and the Taller de Gráfica Popular, and even an attempt to move Guernica from New York to Santiago, the Museum of Solidarity was unveiled in 1972 before being dramatically closed down during the Military Coup in 1973. Following its international exile, the Museum has been recovered in its entirety in recent years. This conversation, conducted by its current director, Claudia Zaldívar, introduces its past and recent history, whilst also debating a model of cooperation and decisive utopia with which to consider art networks and exchanges from our present.