Eugenio Dittborn
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One of the pioneers of South American conceptualism, Eugenio Dittborn was a pioneer of mail art and explored the implications of politicizing creative work. He and his contemporaries eschewed the stilted, academic means and subjects of artistic representation found in Chile at the time. After studying in Europe during the late 1960s, he returned to Chile at a time when the nation was ruled by the repressive military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Dittborn became a member of the so-called Escena de Avanzada (“Advanced Scene”), a small group of artists around Santiago, Chile, which used avant-garde techniques as tactics of political dissidence. Dittborn’s airmail art was a method of evading government censors, allowing messages and images of protest to literally and metaphorically escape the country. Dittborn focused on those suffering most under the Pinochet junta: the poor, alleged criminals, racial minorities, women, and thousands of victims who disappeared during Pinochet’s regime. Using photo silkscreen, naïve gestural painting, collage, and text on craft paper, Dittborn’s finished works were folded and sent directly to galleries abroad via the conventional postal system. A dispatch from the front lines or a message in a bottle, Dittborn’s works were both aesthetically exciting and politically vital, as …
One of the pioneers of South American conceptualism, Eugenio Dittborn was a pioneer of mail art and explored the implications of politicizing creative work. He and his contemporaries eschewed the stilted, academic means and subjects of artistic representation found in Chile at the time. After studying in Europe during the late 1960s, he returned to Chile at a time when the nation was ruled by the repressive military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Dittborn became a member of the so-called Escena de Avanzada (“Advanced Scene”), a small group of artists around Santiago, Chile, which used avant-garde techniques as tactics of political dissidence. Dittborn’s airmail art was a method of evading government censors, allowing messages and images of protest to literally and metaphorically escape the country. Dittborn focused on those suffering most under the Pinochet junta: the poor, alleged criminals, racial minorities, women, and thousands of victims who disappeared during Pinochet’s regime. Using photo silkscreen, naïve gestural painting, collage, and text on craft paper, Dittborn’s finished works were folded and sent directly to galleries abroad via the conventional postal system. A dispatch from the front lines or a message in a bottle, Dittborn’s works were both aesthetically exciting and politically vital, as communications by most Chileans were severely curtailed until the fall of Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1990.
Dittborn continues to make similar work, though his focus has shifted into other human rights causes, such as protection for Chile’s indigenous Indian population and others in the underclass. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including solo shows and retrospectives at institutions such as the Museo des Artes Visuales in Santiago, the Instituto de Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon, the New Museum, the ICA London, and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam.
show more descriptionshow less descriptionDittborn continues to make similar work, though his focus has shifted into other human rights causes, such as protection for Chile’s indigenous Indian population and others in the underclass. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including solo shows and retrospectives at institutions such as the Museo des Artes Visuales in Santiago, the Instituto de Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon, the New Museum, the ICA London, and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam.
Born 1943
Hometown Santiago, Chile
Lives and Works Santiago, Chile
Education
University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, 1965
Works Available for Purchase
No works