To build a library:
This is an editorial micro production space where we explore a new kind of library that is created through collaborative work. Everything is made in real time by its users, that become the authors.
The Book of the Body
The Book of Questions
The Book of Quotes
Mil M2
Santiago, Chile / 2013
Mil M2 (One Thousand Square Meters) is an artist-run institution based in Santiago de Chile, focused on the temporary use of vacant infrastructure and the collective generation of knowledge.
Our mission is to develop - through temporary use projects - prototypes of self-organized cultural institutions and devices, linked to specific infrastructure, communities and territories. Over the last three years, we have explored the relationship between the art and community engagement, through a series of public programs, performances and installations.
In the midst of the political crisis that affects citizen participation Mil M2’s vision calls for the artistic exploration of new tools and new rules for the recovering of direct citizen engagement, its manifestation in public spaces and the documentation of such explorations. The aim behind all this is to develop new participatory methodologies – and cultural institutions – based on collectivizing practices, performances and outcomes. The implementation of this vision in prototyping institutions and devices, granted us with the 2014 National Innovation Award in “Cultural Innovation”.
Our first project consisted on a “Center for Citizen Participation and Innovation” located on a vacant hat factory. For a whole year, this center served as a common platform for artistic practices and social gatherings. After its demolition, our second temporary use project: “Proyecto Pendiente”, consist on the activation of a site-specific gallery, in the upper plateau of a recovered theater. The development of these site-specific cultural institutions led to envisioning a nomadic device capable of spreading the type of public sharing and inquiring, proper to the events hosted in these two venues. This nomadic engagement device became the starting point for the conceptualization of Proyecto Pregunta, a critical participation device that has toured the region gathering questions from diverse communities.
Mil M2 is a collective formed by five partners from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. Our current team includes ten people ranging from architects, to visual artist, artisans, graphic designers, cultural managers and performers. Our organizational structure identifies three main areas of work: the comprehensive design of cultural events and programs, the development of content and this abstract for the project.
Pedro Sepúlveda
