If I had to think about the most memorable moment out of the SPU's brief stay in Santiago, I am sure it would be our visit to La Peluquería Francesa and our discussion with performance artists Gonzalo Rabanal and Samuel Ibarra Covarrubias (La Peluqueria Francesa was an old French Barber shop turned into restaurant where now one combs dishes and ideas). " You have come at a very opportune time", said Samuel, in reference to the proximity of Chile's September 11 (a date of huge political resonance). Samuel helped contextualize the current art scene in Chile, particularly in reference to performance art.

The Chilean art world, seen from an outside perspective, appears as very active and yet profoundly divided in aesthetic positions, alliances and territorialisms both in practice and academia, which became more and more evident to me throughout my stay. An event that has particularly generated a lot of discussion is the upcoming publication of a history of Chilean art edited by Gerardo Mosquera. It is to be expected that such a delicate and complex topic may generate criticisms even before it is realized, but in any case it has generated debates around the mechanisms of validation that help establish certain artists and ideas. It is partially under this climate where we will have our debates.

"We want to be the more facilitating as possible", promised, (and delivered) Camilo Yañez, artist and visual arts director of Matucana 100, who are now our hosts in Santiago. Camilo and his great team took us around the neighborhood to get the necessary materials to build the shool. This last stop before Ushuaia broke the record of efficiency and time in building the schoolhouse.

I stayed in a student hostel in downtown Santiago, in a neighborhood lined up with turn of the century buildings and streets that fall into deep silence at night.