La ciudad was written by Gonzalo Millán over the course of five years, during his exile in Canada, and first published in Montreal in 1979. It is a book-length poem composed of hundreds of declarative sentences, originally grouped into 68 fragments, but one that never stopped growing and changing. Fifteen years later, for its first Chilean edition, La ciudad expanded to 73 fragments. This poem-litanу recounts the unfolding of a city under siege by an ominous power. It does so without sentimentality or lyrical embellishment, with the resignation of a distant witness.
For various reasons—originally censorship, and later inheritance bureaucracy—La ciudad has remained out of print. This is why we decided to produce an experimental edition, printed with coin-reactive ink: a book that must be revealed in order to be read, using a 10 Chilean peso coin. A tribute to Millán, a nod to silence, a game.
Millán on La ciudad:
“I chose monotony, fatigue, impersonality, commonplace expressions, and plain statements as modules; the mechanical repetition of the identical as my method. Surviving day after day, for decades, under a tyranny and in exile is neither a pleasant nor an amusing experience.”
Printed with coin-reactive ink
ISBN 978-631-00-7570-9
2025
136 pages
21 × 14.5 cm
Sewn binding
Includes a 10 Chilean peso coin
