The Scenographic Object as embodiment of social unrest

Baquedano Statue, Santiago, Chile

Bibliographic Data

ID22112503
AuthorsMarcela I OteíZa Silva (Texas Wesleyan University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume11
Issue3-4
Pages267-281
Publication date2025-10-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTheatre & Performance Design (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2332-2551 • E-ISSN: 2332-2578
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23322551.2026.2639903
OpenAlexW7146984989
LanguageEN
References cited5

This article examines the Baquedano statue as a scenographic object, arguing that this urban monument embodied social unrest and acted as an active participant in the 2019–20 estallido social (social revolution) in Santiago, Chile. Operating as a relational scenographic object, the statue became a medium through which protesters, artists, and citizens articulated socioeconomic demands within the contested space of Plaza Baquedano. Drawing on Hann’s concept of the scenographic as an analytical method, the article outlines how successive interventions and reappropriations—alongside government countermeasures—generated a social dramaturgy that positioned the monument as an actor within the unfolding sociopolitical climate. Attending to themes of absence and disappearance, the article examines the statue’s material transformations and its removal, including the temporary emptiness of its site during curfew and pandemic restrictions, which left a charged vacant pedestal. These transformations generated scenographies of absence, in which disappearance did not diminish the statue’s cultural significance; rather, its physical withdrawal amplified its presence across social media and digital circulation, situating the Baquedano case within global movements of de-monumentalization and anti-colonial resistance

Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America · Politics and Society in Latin America

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