Getting to Know the Landscape with Your Hands: an exhibition that transforms learnings from nature into an artistic experience

Educators, students, cultural managers, artists, and community members from Villarrica and surrounding areas attended the opening of Getting to Know the Landscape with Your Hands, which features creations by teachers and students from La Araucanía. Until September 14, at the Liquen Cultural Center, visitors will be able to explore works that emerged from pedagogical processes developed within our Docente Activo program, and discover how education, art, and ecology open new ways of relating to the territory.

This is the first art exhibition of the Docente Activo program, which since 2012 has invited pairs of educators from different disciplines to participate in co-learning experiences in nature. Since 2019, the program has focused its efforts in La Araucanía, particularly in the Toltén River basin. The exhibition design takes this territory as its reference, proposing a journey from the mountains to the sea, visually connecting the works through a map that represents its different waterways.

On this, Manuela Méndez, Director of Learning at FMA, emphasized that the exhibition is also a reflection of the commitment and vocation of the teachers who took part in this process: “We are grateful for their enthusiasm and openness to expand their role and also become researchers and artists. Their educational work not only conveys knowledge, but also transforms experiences, hopes, and territories,” she said.

Meanwhile, Fiorella Angelini, exhibition coordinator, highlighted that the show represents an opportunity to bring art closer to schools and the local community, as well as to make transdisciplinary educational practices visible: “These projects are a bridge that connects and gives value to the learnings that are born in the classroom and expand into an artistic space.”

From the Liquen Cultural Center, exhibition curator José Contreras Urrutia valued the collaboration with FMA, as well as the shared vision around arts education and science: “The works show how art and science can generate meaningful learning experiences for children.”

Getting to Know the Territory Through the Voices of Its Inhabitants

On one of the walls of the exhibition hall, a series of photographs and videos portray the experience of the project I Look at You, I Observe You, and I Value You. In 2020, during the pandemic, art and music teacher Cristian Sepúlveda and natural sciences teacher María José Roa, from the Juan Baustica Chesta School in Pitrufquén, invited their seventh-grade students to look at their own surroundings with new eyes. Despite the challenges of confinement, children, with camera and notebook in hand, recorded the ecosystems and biodiversity around them while reflecting on how climate change and pollution affect these places.

With the gradual return to in-person classes, new methodologies were explored, experimenting with mapping projections and musical improvisation based on ancestral Mapuche rhythms, integrating forest sounds into their creations. This process strengthened students’ connection with their environment while also helping to heal emotions and rebuild trust after the pandemic: “It allowed us to express emotions and deep learnings through artistic creation,” explained Sepúlveda.

Another project carried out within the framework of Docente Activo in 2023 led to the creation of décimas (a traditional poetic form) inspired by experiences documented in the local environment. This initiative involved the installation of camera traps by a school community near Villarrica National Park. History teacher and film-and-environment mediator Manuel Calcagni, from Colegio Pucón, led the project Our Park in Décimas together with English teacher and environmental project coordinator Constanza Salas.

“Ecosystems at risk / pumas as witnesses of time / foxes fleeing by the thousand / hares escaping the rifle / Mother Earth endures harsh storms / at the hands of vile humans,” were some of the verses written by students during the workshop guided by the teachers, which are now part of the exhibition. “We managed to connect work across different subjects, something that rarely happens due to lack of time. That led to deeper learning,” said Calcagni, also stressing the importance of “going out, touching, looking at, and listening to the environment in order to open new questions.”

In another part of the hall, fine threads hang from the ceiling, holding a collection of 40 small publications containing personal stories, emotions, and experiences of young students from the Villarrica Polytechnic High School. The search for identity was at the heart of Not Quite This, Not Quite That, a 2023 project led by teachers Scarlette Rodríguez and Francisca Marín, who teach visual arts and philosophy. Here, students from different high school levels worked around the question Who am I from a place of difference? “Seeing their work exhibited gives a special value to their voices,” highlighted Rodríguez, underlining how artistic creation also became an exercise in recognition and belonging.

Dialogue to Weave Collaborative Networks Among Teachers

Collectively reflecting on new methodologies of learning and teaching in connection with the natural environment will be the focus of the conversation Sensitive Pedagogies to Create from the Territory, to be held on Thursday, September 4, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm at the Liquen Cultural Center in Villarrica.

In this gathering of exchange and co-learning, we will address topics such as artistic mediation and ecology through pedagogical experiences inspired by nature-based learning. Together with educators from different editions of the Docente Activo program, we will share experiences on well-being in educational communities, sensitive teaching practices, and transdisciplinary methodologies that benefit situated learning and the care of ecosystems.

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Join a Guided Tour

On Saturday, September 6 at 4:00 pm, we will hold a guided tour of the exhibition. Open to the general public with no prior registration required.