How to Design a Revolution: The Chilean Road to Design

How to Design a Revolution: The Chilean Road to Design is a comprehensive exhibition on graphic, textile and industrial design during Salvador Allende’s government in Chile (1970-1973). This is an exceptional case in the history of design, in which the unprecedented act of choosing revolution through the ballot box produced the first instance of a nation deliberately combining socialism and democracy in design as part of a political project.

As part of the programme commemorating the 50th anniversary of the civil-military coup, the exhibition was on display in the Centro Cultural La Moneda in Santiago de Chile from 2023 to 2024, and in the Disseny Hub Barcelona in 2025. It features original pieces and design reproductions that aimed to democratise reading, music and clothing, reduce technological dependence, and address child malnutrition among other goals.

This approximately 350-piece exhibition is curated by Hugo Palmarola and Pedro Ignacio Alonso of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and by Eden Medina of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of the most notable pieces in the exhibition is the first complete and functional reconstruction of the Cybersyn operations room, a project for networked communication between the country’s industries and the government that also sought to enable the participatory management of production, a landmark in the history of cybernetics. The room is open to visitors and can be operated with instruction.

A richly illustrated volume of essays on the history of design during the Allende period accompanies the exhibition and is available in English. The book is published and distributed globally by the renowned Swiss publishing house Lars Müller Publishers.

Curators: Hugo Palmarola, Eden Medina, Pedro Ignacio Alonso.

Organised by: Museum Angewandte Kunst - Frankfurt am Main.

In collaboration with: MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society, MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Studies of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Disseny Hub Barcelona; Barcelona City Council; Directorate for Participation and Democratic Innovation of Barcelona, City Council and Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan, La Moneda Cultural Center; Museum of Memory and Human Rights of Chile; National Historical Museum of Chile; and Goethe-Institut Chile.