Flood

Abstract

Two port cities, both located on the 23rd parallel south of the Equator: Santos, on the Atlantic Ocean and bordered by the lush Atlantic Forest of Serra do Mar, and Antofagasta, embraced by the arid Atacama Desert on the Pacific. Part of a nation rebuilt after the devastating 2010 earthquake, Chile witnessed the founding of the SACO Biennial amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The inaugural theme of the Biennial, Aluvión (Flood), recalls a significant and tragic event in Chile’s national memory that occurred in 1991. A powerful flood caused by torrential rains and landslides destroyed homes in the desert hills surrounding Antofagasta. The collapse of massive amounts of soil buried streets under mud descending from the mountains encircling the city. The disaster, linked to the El Niño phenomenon—an abnormal warming of Pacific Ocean waters—claimed more than a hundred lives. Today, this catastrophe is seen as an early warning of the ongoing crisis caused by climate change. Antofagasta is Chile’s mining epicenter, making it impossible to ignore the parallels between its scarred landscape—pierced mountains, polluted air, and the contaminated waters of both ocean and desert—and the relentless destruction of progress, which erases families, animals, vegetation, livelihoods, and coastal or riverside cultures. The historic Melbourne Clark Pier, where the mud from the 1991 disaster poured into the sea, served as the heart of Aluvión's exhibition. This port structure, once tied to the export of saltpeter and the colonial conflicts of the War of the Pacific involving Bolivia and the United Kingdom, became an open-air, international collective exhibition space. The pier transformed into a bridge of remembrance, evoking the solidarity and unity typical of communities recovering from devastation. Some of the works reflected the spirit of reconstruction in the aftermath of tragedy. In this post-pandemic era of genocide and territorial wars, amid the shared trauma of confinement and powerlessness, public art in the maritime setting of the breakwater—with the sound of the waves, the blue sky, the flight of seagulls, the roar of sea lions, and the warmth of the desert sun shimmering over the Pacific—offers a tangible example of re-enchantment with life.