Contentious memories of a riot dog: The Matapacos statue intervention during the 2019/2020 social uprising in Chile

Abstract

This article revolves around a case study of the Matapacos statue intervention that took place during the 2019/2020 Chilean social uprising.¹ I examine how the introduction of a large statue of the riot dog Negro Matapacos into the urban space of the Chilean capital of Santiago disrupted the traditional monumental landscape by making visible a range of counter-hegemonic mnemonic narratives that converged and reinforced each other in a multidirectional dynamic. The statue intervention was part of a more extensive reconfiguration of the sensible in the urban space during the mobilisation, driven by the activists’ immense aesthetic output, which in turn fed into the emergence of the collective political subject of the Chilean mass movement. Although the statue intervention evoked memories of violent events, it was characterised by a joyful and celebratory atmosphere, which demonstrates the mobilising role of nontraumatic mnemonic practices in the context of activism.