Chilean visual artist, graphic artist, and muralist Jorge Kata Núñez will be staying in the Netherlands for the coming weeks. He has been invited by the Chilean Community Rotterdam and BKOR to create the mural. Ode to Salvador Allende to recreate. This work, designed by Jorge Kata Núñez, was painted in 1999 by Atelier Leo Mineur and was on display above the entrance of nursing home De Leeuwenhoek on the West-Kruiskade, Rotterdam, until the end of 2023. Due to the poor condition of the wooden panels and the frame, the work was removed, to now be repainted, this time by Núñez himself.
The mural Ode to Salvador Allende was part of Rotterdam escape hill: from Chile to Rotterdam and back (1999), a traveling exhibition of stories, photographs, and art by Chilean refugees, a mural by Jorge Kata Núñez, a music festival, and a publication.
Following the military coup of September 11, 1973, against socialist President Salvador Allende, many Chilean political refugees came to the Netherlands. The artists among them brought with them their extensive experience with murals, a political art form that had already been introduced in Chile in the 1940s. After Jorge Kata Núñez fled to the Netherlands in 1977, he founded the Brigada Ramona Parra (BRP), through which he supported solidarity actions for Chile and demanded an end to Pinochet's dictatorship. In the Netherlands, he built up a flourishing artistic practice consisting primarily of graphic work and murals. Jorge Kata Nuñez will be working on his painting in the coming period. Ode to Salvador Allende and trusts that the work will be on display at the West-Kruiskade again before his return trip to Chile.
The mural is made possible by Woonstad Rotterdam, Woonbron, Stichting Humanitas, Petit 3D Techniek, MaakNet, and BKOR.