Airmail Paintings on Paper, 1986
painting
Eugenio Dittborn
Eugenio Dittborn lives and works in Santiago de Chile. In 1984, Dittborn began painting on large sheets of paper and fabric that he folded up and sent through the international postal system in large envelopes. These "Airmail Paintings" made it possible for him to nevertheless participate, and uncensored, in the global art scene during the Pinochet dictatorship. This way of working became the core of his practice and a methodical reflection on painting, its circulation, its physical, local and global existence. In doing so, Dittborn early adopted a post- and decolonial perspective, deconstructing the coherence of various canonized narratives such as history, identity, origin, destiny, and the like. Combining symbolic sources of different kinds and times, he creates counter-narratives in which the mourning of death, oppression, and destruction is met with a coquettish humor that creates an irresolvable play of ambivalences. Solo exhibitions include the Museo de Artes Visuales (2010), Institute for Contemporary Art, Lisbon (1998), Museo nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago (1998) as well as numerous gallery presentations. He has paticipated in group exhibitions and Biennials such as the Museum for Contemporary Art, Chicago (2019), Migros Museum for Contemporary Art, Zurich (2016), the 9th Sharjah Art Biennial (2009), the 3rd Kwangju Biennale, Kwangju City (2000), the Documenta IX, Kassel (1992) and many others.
- Anna Boghiguian
- Candice Breitz
- Marco A. Castillo
- CATPC
- Alice Creischer
- Chto Delat
- Clegg & Guttmann
- Eugenio Dittborn
- Heinrich Dunst
- Anna Ehrenstein
- León Ferrari
- Peter Friedl
- Sophie Gogl
- Barbara Hammer
- Ramon Haze
- Hiwa K
- Simon Lehner
- Renzo Martens
- Chris Martin
- Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger
- Oswald Oberhuber
- Mario Pfeifer
- Dierk Schmidt
- Santiago Sierra
- Michael E. Smith
- Franz Erhard Walther
- Clemens von Wedemeyer
- Tobias Zielony