PILAR QUINTEROS

(Santiago, 1988)

A co-founder of the artist collective MICH (Museo Internacional de Chile), Pilar Quinteros is interested in amending fragmented narratives. Her research focuses on the history of certain places, and often references architectural landmarks in her site-specific installations. Lake Bulo (2016) was an art action performed by Quinteros on Lake Llanquihue in the south of Chile, the surroundings of which were colonized by German settlers in the early 1850s and are now populated by tourist resorts. As a result, the area of around the lake is known for its Germanic architecture and gastronomy, as well as the ongoing territorial conflicts between current settlers and the Huilliche- Mapuche people, who were pushed off their land. According to Quinteros, the constructions she painstakingly creates and then destroys represent “the origins of the city” and “the struggle of one culture to impose itself and prevail over another.” Although referring to particular histories, the artist considers the precariousness and vulnerability of her pieces a representation of the “fragile, perishable, and limited” condition that defines any human construction— whether it be physical or social.