Gabriela & Violeta launch their presidential candidacy

“Women must stop being the beggar for protection and be able to live without having to sacrifice their happiness with one of the disgusting modern marriages,” says Gabriela Mistral in the last chapter of the web series Gabriela & Violeta that GAM launched yesterday to start the celebrations of the centenary of Violeta Parra.

The answer is a real quote that the poet wrote at the age of 17, but it is as valid as many of the phrases that she and Violeta Parra said in life and that are still valid today around issues of childhood, corruption, #Not one less and inclusion, among others.

To bring the message of these two very powerful women to today's Chile, GAM presents them through two life-size wool dolls that represent Gabriela Mistral and Violeta Parra.  Both were presented this Tuesday at GAM as a way to honor the singer-songwriter on her centenary and make her dialogue with the Nobel Prize winner in literature.

Crocheted and woven by the artist Macarena Ahumada, the figures will be the new hosts of the cultural center.  Sitting in its central plaza, they hope to interact with visitors from today.  They will be accompanied by an edition of El Mercurio's Artes y Letras, printed on fabric, where a hot interview and real answers declared by them in songs, décimas, books and texts are revealed.  

Made with almost 5 kilos of wool, Gabriela and Violeta await the public to make their ideas known, take pictures with them and make known the cultural legacy they left and that we have not yet been able to fully assimilate.

The installation is also part of the web series that GAM carried out since April with the miniature version of the artists and which led them to be number one on asocial networks with their adventures.  The fictional series, with the motto and slogan #NoNosFumos, was made using only cell phones and managed to produce a meeting between these Chilean artists who did not get to know each other, but who in their different disciplines made strong social criticisms.

During the activity, the last chapter of the web series Gabriela & Violeta, where they were interviewed “as two new presidential candidates” by Mónica Rincón emulating CNN Prime.  There, they commented and debated topics such as child protection, inequality, gender violence, discrimination and corruption without mincing words. The chapter was translated into English thanks to an agreement that Imagen Chile has just signed with GAM.

"Messages of great lucidity for Chile"

GAM's director of communications and marketing, Ximena Villanueva, commented on the institution's commitment to this communication action: "We know songs and poems by Violeta and Gabriela, but we wanted to imagine how they would converse today. We investigated and found messages of great lucidity for the Chile we are living in. We wanted to bring them together and bring them closer to our audience who visit us and who talk to us on social networks so that they could speak to us with the same conviction that made them leave rural sectors until they were recognized internationally. It is a digital curatorship, but without losing sight of the public that visits us in person.”

The artist Macarena Ahumada commented on how she managed to create a bond with her characters: "Perhaps the most attractive thing about this project is how the bond with both of them grew as I wove them. Due to a matter of scale and size, it was inevitable to talk to them and treat them like the ladies they are. They are tremendous women, with biographies as attractive as their works. That is what led me to weave them with such care. They are nice, close and extremely talented. It is very nice that they can have this visibility, I feel that the project is more than an act of vindication of their legacy, it is an act of generosity... sharing them, showing them and enjoying them."

The activity also included the artistic participation of the show "Violeta Ciudadana", as a preview of the choral play that will be presented in the theater throughout the week.  The play, directed by Visnu and Gopal Ibarra, includes a citizen choir made up of 106 people who will perform on stage emblematic songs by Violeta Parra, such as Que vivan los Estudiantes, Violeta absent, La jardinera, Que pena feel el alma and Arauco tiene una pena.

Pamela López, programming director of GAM, made a link between both artists: "At GAM we have promoted the themes of inclusion, gender parity and indigenous peoples. This year we celebrated Violeta Parra with a varied artistic program. It then emerged very naturally to link Gabriela and Violeta in a web fiction and 'make them grow' for this new installation that we hope will be a great postcard for the entire public." 

The figures will be installed in the main square of GAM, but on other occasions they are expected to appear in various places in the cultural center. They are already with a gigantography in the subway and with the broadcast of the web series on Metro TV.