Pablo Helguera Archive

The School of Panamerican Unrest is an ongoing public art project initiated in 2003 whose main component was a cross-continental journey, by car, from Anchorage to Tierra de Fuego, that took place in the summer of 2006. A portable schoolhouse structure was installed in a variety of plazas, museums and other public spaces within which the public was presented with films, discussions and performances around the subject of the Panamerican ideals of the XIXth century and the current social and political issues.

Preparatory Sketch for fist pilot school at Shedhalle, Zurich, 2003

At each one of its 25 stops, the project included a discussion with local artists, writers, activists or general public, workshops, films, the collective writing and reading of a speech, and the performance of a “Panamerican Anthem”. The project covered 25,000 ground miles, making it the most extensive public art project ever completed. A full traveling exhibition and documentary was presented in 2007-2009. Further information of this project is available at www.panamericanismo.org.

Mary Ellen Strom and other participants at First SPU workshop, Zurich, May 2003

Panamerican Address at the opening of the exhibition Escultura Social at the MCA Chicago, June 2007

first textbook for the SPU, Zurich, 2003