Visual memory of subaltern artistic and heritage practices around colonial legacies. Transformation, countervisuality and decolonisation of museums in Chile.
Museums are closely linked to colonialism and have therefore suffered a crisis of legitimacy, especially after the processes of decolonisation in the second half of the twentieth century. This paper defines the decolonisation of museums and then reviews how these emancipatory processes are reflected in the patrimonial and artistic practices that have been carried out in recent years in some of the museums of Santiago de Chile. The review of these exercises is presented with the aim of recognising their experiences, while at the same time making a visual memory of the political powers of subaltern and racialised groups in these institutions. The autonomous art of these collectives aims to overflow the museums in order to transform them into spaces of historical reparation and social healing.