CAN you tell us what inspired you to create this unusual sculpture?
 

The project is the result of those of us who participate in the activities of the Tobalaba Aerodrome Memorial Group. 

To relate in a sculptural work to such despicable events as throwing bodies into the sea from an army aircraft implies pain and re-victimisation, but to think that the comrades who suffered this tragic fate are reclaiming their presence among us is more a symbol of hope than of pain.

The concept behind this memorial is that of bodies that, represented by the train tracks, retake their space among us. What we know is that the bodies were tied with wires to the rails. Marta Ugarte, [a teacher] was the only body that returned to the shore, and a mother-of-pearl button was discovered attached to a train rail at the bottom of the sea.  

The train rails are arranged in such a way as to evoke the shape of the waves of the sea, with each of the victims identified on a piece of rusty metal that has kept its memory unscathed.

 

Why place it in a central reservation? 

A memorial must be built in the place where the events took place, but at the same time the chosen location must be a place of high public visibility, since the objective is to recount what happened to ensure there will be no repetition. 

The central alleyway of Fernando Castillo Velasco Avenue, located in front of the airfield runway, meets these requirements as that is where the take-off and landing of aircraft took place. 

It is a connecting route to, among others, Villa Grimaldi, a detention and torture centre from which the bodies of comrades were taken to be thrown into the sea.

The elongated shape of the monument is related to Chile’s geography of more than 5,000km of coastline. The central reservation allows us to simulate that long coastline.

How will people experience the work?

Those who come to mind are mainly the users of public buses since most of them transport the inhabitants of Villa La Reina as well as the workers of the Industrial Park of La Reina. 

Salvador Allende’s government was a government of residents and workers, and the victims of the repression following the 1973 coup d'état, many of whom left from this airfield, gave their lives and struggles for the causes of the working class.

The memorial includes pedestrian walkways at both ends, which can be used to walk around the site from close up. Although it is designed more to be observed than to be walked around, we understand that there should always be the possibility for those who want to come and leave candles, flowers or other things, to do so.

What is the symbolism of the tacks on the rails, and is the number of “rails” specific and therefore allegorical?

The National Truth and Reconciliation Commission put the number of disappeared detainees at approximately 1,200, and it is presumed that approximately 900 of them may have been thrown into the sea. 

This figure is reflected in the project with the presence of nine islands or rock formations in which the emerging rails are grouped, each one of them symbolising a hundred comrades. 

Our monument also has a key: “With Their Lives They Built Our History, To The Disappeared and Executed Detainees Who Passed Through This Precinct.”