A conversation with artist Eugenio Dittborn held in conjunction with his exhibition at the New Museum, Remota: Airmail Paintings by Eugenio Dittborn.1
That exhibition was the first by a U.S. museum that investigated the unique oeuvre of the highly influential Latin American artist, Eugenio Dittborn. Following an early career as a painter, graphic artist and creator or earthworks, Dittborn began at the height of the Pinochet military dictatorship to produce works that would circumvent both the state censors as well as the cultural boycott imposed on Chile from the outside. Produced from imagery whose range included historical engravings, old police photos, drawings by schizophrenics and current mass media, the airmail paintings, once made, were folded and placed in customized envelopes, which were then exhibited alongside the works.2