To the Tip - a Trip: Una Visita al Taller de Serigrafia Instantanea | A Visit to El Taller de Serigrafia Instantanea

Calle San Martin

Mientras pedeleamos, llegando al centro de Santiago, yo y Kayla anotamos que habian afiches grandes y parecidos pegados por todos lados. En la calle San Martin, pasamos tres a la vuelta de la casa, pasamos unos que estaban super escondidas arriba de puertas y otros que unos trabajadores estaban quitando de las paredes poco a poco. Al instante uno se nota que son todos hechos por un grupo aunque hay varios diseños.

Cuando llegamos a la casa, preguntamos quienes eran las personas atras estas afiches. Sin duda, nuestros amigos, hermanos de casa Amaru y Paloma, sabían que era el Taller de Serigrafia Instantanea. De allí nos pusimos en contacto con ellxs, compartimos estampando en el evento ciclista MueveteStgo en la Plaza Italia, estampamos nuestras poleras en la Plaza Brazil y finalmente tuvimos la suerte a visitar algunos de los cerebros atrás el proyecto que es el Taller Serigrafia Instantánea.

Ellxs son doce en total, y empezaron a estampar en la calle durante las Protestas Estudiantiles en Santiago en 2011. Desde allí, se dieron cuenta de que hubo una necesidad y un deseo por mas y mas imágenes con mensajes que se unen la gente. Ahora están realizando varios proyectos y en casi todas las marchas están allí estampando. Ademas, se han juntado con otros grupos de activistas sociales para diseñar afiches o imágenes que tiene que ver con una lucha Chilena. Recién se habían juntado con varios grupos para realizar un gran movimiento gráfico por el aniversario de 40 años del Golpe de Estado en 1973. Estas son los afiches que yo y Kayla vemos en la calle a llegar a Santiago y los que estan en la fotos arriba.

En su taller, realizan y crean montones de bastidores, se organizan y también dan clases de serigrafia. Ellxs han estado desarrollando la manera mas eficaz de poder realizar todos los proyectos que quieren hacer y en una manera super accesible económicamente. Cualquier día que van a la calle a estampar es siempre por aporte voluntario, así desafían las normas del capitalismo, y comparten el proceso y el producto. El trabajo que estas artistas están haciendo es increíble, y se están creando un movimiento social atraves de la serigrafia.

Porfavor mire su pagina y síguelos en el face, twitter, fliker (...) para poder apoyar de lejos. Y si esta en Santiago de Chile, búsquelos para estampa una polera! Aca se puede ver todas las fotos de cada polera, o cada tela, que han estampado.

Memory is Alive | La Memoria Esta Vivo

Wheat-pasting with brooms | Pegando los afiches

A Poster in an Apartment Window | Te Estan Cagando Despierta

Amalgamation | Amalgamacion

Information publica is yours | La informacion publica es tuya

During the dictatorship, they were burnt | En dictadura, los quemaban

San Martin Street | Calle San Martin

As we pedaled into the center of Santiago, Kay and I began to realize large screenprinted posters wheat-pasted on walls everywhere. We passed three on the block we were staying on, more hidden in nooks above front doors, showing thorough the windows of apartments, hanging on permanent and temporary walls all the same and some that were being chipped away at by workers who were paid to remove them. Even though there were many different designs, the style gave away that there was a uniting force behind these images.

We got home and asked our friends and lovely hosts, Paloma and Amaru if they knew the story behind the posters. Without doubt they knew that they were the works of El Taller Serigrafia Instantanea (The Instant Screenprint Workshop). From there we got in touch with the Taller via interwebs, and soon found them live-printing at a citywide cycling event (MueveteStgo), stamped our own T-shirts in the Plaza Brazil the next day at another live-printing event and finally were lucky enough to visit some of the folks behind the project at their shop.

All in all, El Taller is made up of twelve young women and men who began printing on the street during the powerful Student Protests in Santiago 2011, aka "the Chilean Winter". The excitement they felt during the protests sparked a strong energy. They realized that people wanted and needed graphics as a tool to express their protests, their passions, and to unite them with others fighting parallel battles. The Taller has grown massively. In two years, they have designed almost 40 images touching on various social struggles and have live-printed thousands of these images in public spaces for donation only, documenting each print with a photo (yes, social media propagation power). They also facilitate basic and advanced screenprinting workshops, ever changing what they teach as they discover more and more basic/cheap/efficient methods.

For the anniversary of the Coup in '73 this past September, they put out a call for participants from various social activist group across Chile to come forth with ideas/images/phrases regarding memories of the military dictatorship. In collaboration with those who came forth, members of the Taller worked to design posters for each of these ideas, stretching and burning large format screens, printing them, and then wheat-pasting the images throughout Santiago streets using brooms to brush from 5 gallon buckets of glue. These are the posters that Kayla and I first noticed and the ones you see in the photos above.

These artists are doing incredible work, spreading knowledge and pegging powerful images across their country to create and support social movements through hand printed graphics. WOWA! Please check out their website and their albums of all the photos of each print they have made. Also, follow them and any and all social media platform you engage with to support their cause remotely. If you are in Santiago de Chile, get in touch.