Known for her interrogation of political agency, Rosenfeld has engaged deeply with the 1973 military coup in Chile, which deposed President Salvador Allende in favour of dictator Augusto Pinochet, consistently criticising authoritarianism and normalisation throughout her career.
Perhaps her best-known work, 1979 performance Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento, saw the artist take to Santiago’s Avenida Manquehue to place strips of fabric perpendicular to the street’s dotted lines, creating crosses and rendering the system of traffic control illegible. The piece, acquired by the MoMA in 2018, responded to events in 1973, interfering with the public reception of signs and social order. It featured at Documenta 12 (where it was accidentally removed by cleaners) and has been recreated in various locations linked to political power, including the White House, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Allied Checkpoint in Berlin.
Rosenfeld was named Visual Artist of the Year by Chile’s National Council of the Arts in 2007, represented her country at the 2015 Venice Biennale alongside Paz Errázuriz, and co-founded the collective CADA in 1971.
1 Mira Madrid gallery paid tribute to the artist, saying, “You will always be with us. The line was her weapon.”
