Memoria visual de una nación, Public art mural in Universidad de Chile metro station, Santiago, Chile.
Memoria visual de una nación is a 1,200 m² mural by Chilean painter Mario Toral covering the platforms of the Universidad de Chile metro station in Santiago. It is split into two halves of 600 m² each: Pasado on the east side and Presente on the west, separated by the mezzanine. Panels sit above the tunnel mouths, along both platform walls and on the walls at the foot of the stairs.
Mario Toral was invited by MetroArte in 1993, while living in New York, to paint the station's walls. The Pasado panels, covering 600 m² on the eastern side, were inaugurated on 25 May 1996 with assistants Boris Parra, Manuel Pérez and Francisca Toral. The Presente panels on the western side followed on 12 June 1999, with Gloria Fierro and Mario Paublo joining the team.
Toral's own notes, set on boards in the station, explain the panels: in Antiguos pobladores a winged skull from southern Chilean mythology and a woman giving birth with rays; at the right edge the Mapuche creation, where the serpents Mai-Mai and Ten-Ten made and destroyed the world, with Pillán, god of volcanoes, a stone choroy marking the seasons and a rehue with seven steps.
The mural is located in a central metro station and can be easily accessed when using the train. The scenes include explanatory notes that help visitors understand the different historical moments shown.
The Past panels were inaugurated on 25 May 1996, with Boris Parra, Manuel Pérez and Francisca Toral as Toral's assistants; the Present panels followed on 12 June 1999, with Parra, Pérez, Gloria Fierro and Mario Paublo collaborating. In 2011 Lonely Planet named Universidad de Chile station one of the ten most artistic metro stations in the world, the only one chosen in Latin America.
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