Can a museum be a weapon? What follows is the story of how a small-scale early-1970s counter-information campaign to defend the Chilean ‘revolution without arms’ against a transnational imperialist smear campaign materialised into an experimental museum, based on the principle that art and politics are intrinsically inseparable. Initially simply a ‘beautiful and generous’ idea of a museum free and open to all, and against the geo-political monopoly of art by the interests of the capitalist metropolis, the ‘museum of solidarity’—self-proclaimed as such before the existence of a collection or a building to house it (the latter came only decades later)—would indeed become an important organ for resistance. …

Read the full essay as published in Afterall 44 Autumn/Winter 2017. The text is generously made accessible by Afterall for the 11th Berlin Biennale.

Can a museum be a weapon? What follows is the story of how a small-scale early-1970s counter-information campaign to defend the Chilean ‘revolution without arms’ against a transnational imperialist smear campaign materialised into an experimental museum, based on the principle that art and politics are intrinsically inseparable. Initially simply a ‘beautiful and generous’ idea of a museum free and open to all, and against the geo-political monopoly of art by the interests of the capitalist metropolis, the ‘museum of solidarity’—self-proclaimed as such before the existence of a collection or a building to house it (the latter came only decades later)—would indeed become an important organ for resistance. …

Read the full essay as published in Afterall 44 Autumn/Winter 2017. The text is generously made accessible by Afterall for the 11th Berlin Biennale.

Can a museum be a weapon? What follows is the story of how a small-scale early-1970s counter-information campaign to defend the Chilean ‘revolution without arms’ against a transnational imperialist smear campaign materialised into an experimental museum, based on the principle that art and politics are intrinsically inseparable. Initially simply a ‘beautiful and generous’ idea of a museum free and open to all, and against the geo-political monopoly of art by the interests of the capitalist metropolis, the ‘museum of solidarity’—self-proclaimed as such before the existence of a collection or a building to house it (the latter came only decades later)—would indeed become an important organ for resistance. …

Read the full essay as published in Afterall 44 Autumn/Winter 2017. The text is generously made accessible by Afterall for the 11th Berlin Biennale.