A splash of colour for Santiago centre Huellas Artes interprets the human footprint as an artistic trail in Santiago city. It is a cultural engine fueled by the passing flow of citizens and visitors from around the Bellas Artes metro station, a highly cultural area of downtown Santiago. It is an architectural intervention that proposes a new use scene in a fully unclosed outdoor space. The project was developed over a metro station, which currently operates as a non-functional plaza. The idea is to revitalize this site as a catalyst of activities related to the constant flow of people that the station attracts.
It establishes a series of functions and encourages social relationships, evidencing the possibilities of spatial transformation by colors, words, photographs and lines. The material used is cloth tape coated with polyethylene in various colors and sizes. The design had no additional elements. It acted as a costume, a dress for the plaza placing itself on top of the existing and awakening new spatial possibilities on a given structure. Within the proposed functions are a “selfies” wall, an artist spot, and a meeting point such as other informal spontaneous uses, like the “street vendor spot”, “directional arrows”, “seating benches” and more. The project provided opportunities of constant transition between the virtual and the material space.
The “selfies” wall it is a revealing example from where more than 1000 photos in less than 2 days where uploaded in the social networks for virtual interaction. It became a shortly yet significant landmark of the virtual. The project had an ephemeral spirit, as it lasted only 3 days. In the morning the impact was striking when the users noticed that something had drastically transformed the space. A colorful, playful and renewed image invited to experience the space from an unexplored perspective.
The ephemeral nature of the work enhances the excitement of having lived a particular experience, which encourages greater attention to spaces that are used daily and on which people rarely stop. It is an invitation to discover the places where we usually believe there is nothing else.
