Private Story
𝐈𝐈. The brief glimpse of a settler's dream
Summary
12.01.23. It's my grandpa's (Carlos) 91st birthday. That day, he wanted to visit Villa Baviera, a German settler community in central Chile where past and future collides. Formerly known as Colonia Dignidad, Villa Baviera was an isolated settlement of germans that arrived in 1961 under the strict control of the religious leader Paul Schäfer. Until 1996, settlers and dissidents (especially during Pinochet's era) were victims of human rights violations, while to the outside world, the propaganda portrayed the settlement as an example of German efficiency.
For this one-day project, I wanted to play with creating a piece of propaganda from Villa Baviera through my grandfather's enthusiasm for German culture. The nostalgia for the "pure German" culture collides with its present, the Dantesque effort to rewrite their history, and the future of the new generations to come. Today, around ten percent of the original migrants still live in the settlement after more than a decade of reorganization. Only teenagers, the newest generation, speak Spanish as a first language.