Chilean Wine Club
Schedule
Sun Mar 15 2026 at 04:00 pm to 06:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
155 Gibbs Street, Suite 300, Rockville, MD, United States, Maryland 20850 | Rockville, MD
Advertisement
Chilean Wine Club is an artist talk/book reading of the ethnography written by artist and researcher Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida for his exhibition Ya no son pilares (They are no longer piles). Borgsdorf’s exhibition and the text are an anthropological investigation of the Rocas de Santo Domingo, Chile. This beachside property was once owned by a Chilean labor union, and vacation rental cabins provided workers “the right to vacation” during the socialist government of Salvador Allende in the early 1970s. After the CIA-backed coup of Allende, in 1974, the Chilean secret police took over the site and converted the cabins into holding cells and torture chambers for leftist activists. However, in 2013, the cabins were demolished, leaving only the rubble of a cement pile foundation. Drawing on his research experience as an American-born descendant of dictatorship-era migrants, Borgsdorf’s approach focuses on the social life of this rubble, showing how what remains of the Rocas de Santo Domingo is an emotive, textured infrastructure that continues to shape how Chileans think about what it means to transition out of a dictatorship.
Chilean Wine Club is a book reading and artist talk highlighting stories from Borgsdorf’s field work in Chile, highlighting three recent research trips and collaborations with local activists and researchers. Additionally, Borgsdorf presents a reading that re-introduces anthropological theory on materiality, affect, rubble, and infrastructure. The talk shows how lessons from rubble of the recent past in Chile ultimately teach us important lessons about how we think about political violence and regimes anywhere, exploring how violent regimes emerge and disappear from our physical world. Exploring infrastructure in this way, from Chile’s beachside cabins to the United States’ migrant detention centers, opens a new way of noticing, thinking, and being in our world.
Enjoy one of Chile’s most iconic global exports, a sampling of wines, in addition to non-alcoholic Chilean beverage options, and learn more about Borgsdorf’s work at the intersection of anthropology, fiber, and politics. Physical books will be available to purchase at the event. To purchase a digital copy, visit this website directly to order: Ya no son pilares — diego borgsdorf fuenzalida
Advertisement
Where is it happening?
155 Gibbs Street, Suite 300, Rockville, MD, United States, Maryland 20850Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
