The group KiltrV is comprised of five of the best Chilean artists from the Street Art scene in South America. KiltrV comes from the Chilean word Kiltro, which in mapudugu means “stray dog” (mapuche a pre-Colombian language, has survived from an ethnic group in Southern Chile that was never conquered by the Spanish). And by this we mean the “dog” is intelligent and resourceful. The Roman numeral “V” symbolizes its 5 members and also the letter “A” turned upside down, which stands for shrewd artists, anti-conformist.
KiltrV represents the generation born at the end of General Pinochet’s dictatorship, who then grew up under the aegis of Democracy, a democracy which instead of restoring justice and social peace (needed after nearly 18 years of bloody rulership), strived to perpetuate inequality and violence. Education and private health care were affected and a staggering urban violence grew due to a highly addictive drug, derived from cocaine, called “pasta base”. Add to this Santiago’s pollution (it is one of the 10 top most polluted cities in the world), the perpetual enrichment of the elite class put in power by Pinochet, and much much more, and you had all the makings of a liberalism run amok with hardly any social or merit based compensation for the individual.
Today Chilean artists have something to say! KiltrV strives for an aesthetic that presents this generation between the ages of 20 and 30 years old, as an integral part of Santiago’s metropolis of six million inhabitants, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural (thanks to a mixture of multiple cultural migrations and different Indian ethnic groups), progressive, innovative, and funny – humor is one of the sole weapons the populist has against a difficult social-economic situation. They have transcended their heritage of muralists and politics by accepting their sometime violent nature but always remaining generous and wide open to change – equal to the size of their country’s landscape or a like a spicy dish, hot but oh so rich in flavor…
