Drawings

ink and liquid paper on paper

Most pictures fade away only moments after they see the light of day. Unnoticed, they sink into insignificance, like a joke we are apt to forget once we have heard its trivial punch line. Or like some people, who have left no traces except in the filing cards of an administrated life that somehow slipped through the cracks. Several series of drawings by Eugenio Dittborn are dedicated to the brief and ephemeral appearance and disappearance of pictures, people—and jokes.

Die meisten Bilder verschwinden schon, sobald sie das Tageslicht erblicken. Sie versinken unbeachtet in der Bedeutungslosigkeit. So wie mancher Witz, den man gleich nach seiner kleinen Pointe schon vergisst. So wie manche Menschen, deren Spur sich nirgends findet als in den Karteikarten eines verwalteten Lebens, das irgendwohin verschwand. Eugenio Dittborn hat dem kurzen, ephemeren Aufscheinen und Verschwinden von Bildern, Menschen – und Witzen – einige Serien von Zeichnungen gewidmet.

Eugenio Dittborn, El Dibujante, 2013, found drawing as fig. 74 on page 19 of Curso dedibujo: Manual de instrucciones,m no year or author given and 26 variations, ink on paper, 51 x 28 cm each

Eugenio Dittborn, Crusoe, 2013, found drawing from Rico Tipo magazine, Buenos Aires, 1958, and 9 variations, ink and liquid paper on paper, 71 x 39 cm each

Eugenio Dittborn, Tomás Espina, 2013, found metal engraving from Tomás Espina, Ed. 6/50 and 3 variations, ink and liquid paper on paper, 71 x 39 cm each

Eugenio Dittborn, 28, 2013, found drawing from How to Draw People and Animals by Jean Arenstein, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., NY, 1960 and 4 variations, ink and liquid paper on paper, 71 x 39 cm each

Eugenio Dittborn, El Pintor, 2013, found drawing from Zig Zag magazine, Santiago, 1955 and 4 variations, ink and liquid paper on paper, 71 x 39 cm each

Ink and liquid paper on paper

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Eugenio Dittborn

**Airmail Paintings on Duck Fabric, 1998-2011**

**Airmail Paintings on non-woven fabric, 1990-2000**

Biography

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.

Full Biography

Exhibitions at KOW