ABSTRACT
Since a new Water Code was instituted in 1981, water in Chile has been defined neoliberally as a commodity to be traded within a free market of private water rights. This political-economic model of water management, however, has recently entered a crisis: water demands of communities throughout the country now exceed supply. Enabling and legitimizing this politico-ecological model is a cultural hegemony in which water is represented as a private good traded amongst people branded as consumers and owners. During the Chilean social explosion, this hegemonic perception of water was undermined as the subaltern attempted to reconstitute water-society relations. This chapter examines two cultural events that took place in Valparaíso during the social explosion that rethought the role of the artist in society and democratized the process of forming a new culture of water. In other words, this chapter explores the relationship between artistic intervention, radical politics of autonomy, and water justice during the Chilean social explosion.
