Por la razón o la fuerza
Por la razón o la fuerza (By reason or by force) is Chile’s national motto, formally adopted into the coat of arms in 1920, with its origins tracing back to the nation’s early 19th-century struggle for independence. At its core lies a dual proposition: the pursuit of sovereignty through reasoned dialogue, tempered by the acknowledgment that force may be summoned when reason fails. This tension echoes the earlier Latin dictum aut consilio aut ense (by counsel or by sword), inscribed on the republic’s first emblem in 1812, and signals a foundational ambivalence between idealism and realpolitik.
Over time, the motto has come to embody not only a declaration of national will but also a contested ideological terrain. While once aligned with the aspirations of liberation, its durability has rendered it susceptible to critique, particularly in light of Chile’s authoritarian past. The phrase remains embedded in the symbolic infrastructure of the state—emblazoned on currency, shields, and public monuments—even as its meaning continues to shift.
In this work, a Chilean coin bearing the motto is placed on a railway track near a disused station in Batuco and subjected to the passage of a freight train transporting waste southward from Santiago. The coin, flattened under industrial weight, becomes an index of transformation. The symbolic currency of a national ideal—compressed, distorted, and scarred—mirrors the collision between political rhetoric and material reality. This simple act of compression operates as both an elegy and a critique: a quiet, precise gesture in which the forces of industry and decay overwrite the language of statehood.
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Year: 2017
Medium: Train-pressed aluminum-bronze Chilean coin, photographs, single-channel video, color, sound
Dimensions: Variable
Editions: Open series
