On September 7, the exhibition "How to Design a Revolution: The Chilean Road to Design" opened at Santiago's Centro Cultural La Moneda (CCLM), as part of the activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of Chile's civil-military coup. The exhibition showcases graphic and industrial design created during the administration of President Salvador Allende, bringing together over 350 original pieces and featuring a complete reconstruction of the Cybersyn operations room. The show will run until January 28, 2024.
Jointly produced by the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and CCLM, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation and the Goethe-Institut Chile, the exhibition is curated by designer Hugo Palmarola and architect Pedro Ignacio Alonso—both recognized for winning the Silver Lion for Monolith Controversies at the Chilean Pavilion during the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. Renowned Colombian science historian Eden Medina of MIT also participated in the project.
The exhibition offers an extensive journey through the visual and material culture of a crucial historical period in Chile. During this time, the unprecedented decision to pursue a revolution through democratic elections posed a fundamental question for global design: how to design in a way that integrated socialism and democracy.
The Cybersyn operations room—also known as Synco—was a pioneering cybernetics project of its time, intended to be installed in the presidential palace. The goal of the project was to establish immediate communication between state-owned industries, their employees, and government leaders, followed by data processing to enable more informed decision-making.
Previously, Andrés Briceño and Tomás Vivanco, the founders of Fab Lab Santiago, represented Chile at the first London Design Biennale in 2016, where they presented a full-scale replica of the prototype. This allowed the European public to closely experience the history, details, and societal vision that Synco proposed.
Additionally, the exhibition brings together the most outstanding works of Chilean design for the first time. These include posters designed by the Larrea Brothers Studio and record covers for the Nueva Canción Chilena; books and magazines published by Editorial Quimantú; graphic design by Santiago Nattino for the technical education of farmers; posters designed by Waldo González and Mario Quiroz for the National Health Service; product innovations for housing, agriculture, electronics, and healthcare developed by the INTEC Industrial Design Area; production improvements made by industrial workers; and editorial work by the UTE Graphic Workshop, including posters for the exhibition that Salvador Allende and Víctory Jara were scheduled to inaugurate on September 11, 1973.
This article was written by Fabian Dejtiar. The translation is powered by AI.
