“The broadening of the critical space” represents one section of the book, Chile Arte Actual [Chile Art Today], written by the art historians, Gaspar Galaz and Milan Ivelic. In the book, the authors ask themselves why the late 1970s and 1980s in Chile gave rise to an art with marked social content. Galaz and Ivelic point out how the major changes that occurred in the political and economic spheres—especially those that led to the implementation of neoliberal models—did grave damage to “la capacidad reflexiva y crítica de la sociedad en conjunto” [the capacity of the society as a whole for self-criticism and examination]. The response to the prevailing individualism was what the writers call a “counter-discourse” carried out by artists and intellectuals who decided to disseminate their art to a wider audience. With that objective in mind, various Chilean artists performed actions in streets, magazines, on the walls of the city and in the sky. The purpose was to rethink the medium of the artwork so it could be disseminated more broadly and serve as a backdrop for reflection about Chile in their day. Some of the works discussed in this segment of the book are: Para no morir de hambre en el arte [To Avoid Dying of Hunger in Art] (1979) and Ay Sudamerica [Ay, South America] (1981) by the collective, C.A.D.A. (Colectivo Acciones de Arte) [Art Action Collective], Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento [One Thousand Crosses on the Pavement] (1980) by Lotty Rosenfeld, Interacciones sobre el paisaje chileno [Interactions on a Chilean Landscape] (1982) by Ximena Prieto and Juan Castillo, Investigación sobre el Eriazo [Investigation of Eriazo] (1979-1980) by Juan Castillo, and verses from the poem, “La vida nueva” [The New Life] by the poet, Raúl Zurita, skywritten over New York City (1982).
