Museo Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna

Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna is one of the most inspiring, honest, and revolutionary figures in the history of Chile. Historian, politician, journalist, mayor, parliamentarian, candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, traveler, writer, critic, and even firefighter. During his lifetime, he fought for civil liberties and the progress of the country, pioneered the current urbanistic scheme behind Santiago and many other Chilean cities, opened schools and avenues, markets and popular theaters, built the National History Museum, erected monuments, created beautiful neighborhoods, waterfalls, square and promenades. He even went at his own expense to save public spaces, like in Cerro Santa Lucía, using his family patrimony and mortgaging his personal estates to renovate and improve the public park. He famously said “La ciudad enferma es rescatable”, “The sick city can be saved” – and he meant that.

The Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna Museum, located in the namesake Avenida, is dedicated to memorializing his legacy. The museum houses a great part of his bibliographical work, together with a collection of unique objects that belonged to him and his family: paintings, sculptures, furniture, manuscripts, photographs, household clothing, and utensils. The BVM museum is a fascinating one and still, as it happens, not quite the richest one in the country. When the director approached Felicidad, we knew our mission was to revive and freshen, inject new energy, and push the museum forward. Building a campaign for a fascinating museum devoted to a character we love – a broke museum, to be crystal clear – sounded like a nice challenge.

We wanted to revive Mackenna’s figure and give it back to the city and its people. And, to do so, we decided the best strategy was to involve them: we reached out to some of the most famous and talented artists and illustrators with a connection to Santiago to ask them to interpret the figure of the dearest Benjamín, creating a portrait or intervening an existing image of his. From Victor Castillo to Mauricio Garrido, Jacqueline Fressard to Mauricio Duarte, Jesse Hartland and more, we gathered the most important and visionary artists to popularize the historical figure and remind us of his impact. The campaign was a huge boost for the museum, its image was revitalized and citizens had the chance to remember (or get to know) an exemplary and crucial figure of their shared, collective past. How did we manage to have on board some of the most brilliant artists of our generation if the museum was broke? It wasn’t hard with Vicuña Mackenna’s charm.