Activities

Activities

What follows is a selection of the different activities that the Save the Renaico River Social Collective has carried out, as well as different events where it has represented the Renaico River Community Water Museum.

Cultural Activities and Wall Painting: Renaico River Day, December 10, 2022

Hundreds of people participated in the seventh Renaico River Day, on the ninth anniversary of the foundation of the Save the Renaico River Social Collective.

Artists from Valparaíso, Concepción, Kiriwe, Angol, Los Ángeles, and Collipulli painted walls along the shores of the river. Different musicians and bands also played that day, and there was a fair with stands by different small businesses in the area.

Our organization is thankful to each and every person who participated in this event: artists, businesses, groups, and individuals. We’re particularly thankful to the Colhue Veterinary Office, which offered free treatment to local pets.

We send hugs to you all. ¡Amulepe taiñ weichan! (May our struggle continue!)

Muddy, dirty, damp: International Conference on the Stewardship of Water, Artistic Practices, and Communities. February 12 and 13, 2022.

This digital conference presented different international art projects related to the protection of endangered bodies of water. It served as a platform for people to exchange ideas and experiences around three central themes: management, politics, and the representations of bodies of water in a global context. The projects presented had taken place in Chile, Colombia, Germany, India, Japan, Palestine, and the USA. Session attendees talked about artistic practices, forms of collaboration, and challenges to protecting bodies of water. The conference was organized by Citizen Art Days, an association of artists headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Citizen Art Days offers a platform that brings together citizens, artists, and city dwellers to use artistic strategies to resolve concrete problems of public space.

Here is an English-language link to the conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqVf0Hi-KPo&t=1040s

For more information, see http://mudconference.citizenartdays.de/.

Renaico River Birdwatching and Cleanup. June 19, 2021.

Daniel Rivera, a field ornithologist, led a birdwatching excursion along the Renaico River. 

A group of people also carried out an organized cleanup of along the riverbanks. A total of 20 people joined, including the leaders and the participants. Attendance was limited by restrictions on public gatherings due to the pandemic. The event ended with a small concert.

Museum of Democracy. April 17-June 13, 2021

The Save the Renaico River Social Collective and the artist Marcela Moraga presented the Community Water Museum as part of an exhibition entitled “Museum of Democracy” in Berlin. The “Museum of Democracy” is a fictional institution presenting the conservation, exhibition, and use of democracy as if democracy were a relic of the past. In collaboration with artists, theorists, activists, museum curators and others, the museum presented 25 works that seek to preserve, interpret, display, and imagine different relics of the past in the context of a post-democratic society. The Museum of Democracy was located in the art space of the nGbK (neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst) Association.

For more information, see https://museodelademocracia.net/en/about/.

Environmental Education in Renaico. Youth of Renaico for the Environment. 2019

The Collective carried out environmental education sessions in local Renaico schools. They presented on challenges to the local environment, as well as on the importance of native flora and fauna. This took place in collaboration with Rapaces Nahuelbuta, an organization from the city of Angol that works with birds of prey (in compliance with Chile’s Agricultural and Cattle Service, known by its Spanish-language acronym SAG). Rapaces Nahuelbuta has raised awareness about these birds of prey among children and young people by spreading the art of falconry—raising, domesticating, and training falcons and other similar species.