From the Inobjetales towards a "language of action". Clemente Padín and his theoretical-practical critique of the process of dematerialisation of art during the seventies

Description

The Uruguayan artist Clemente Padín is a paradigmatic study case within mail-art. His career followed the typical evolutionary structure of this movement: origin in experimental poetry at the end of the sixties, clear conceptualist tendency in the seventies, decline of the activity in the transition to the eighties. In addition, this artist presented a relevant will to make theory from practice. His four Inobjetal proposals, carried out in 1971 by sending them to his extensive international list of contacts, are proof of this. These were small projects, in which the action of the recipient was requested. At the same time, they attempted to undo some of the legacies of the modern-avant-garde art project, such as the question of authorship or the materiality of artistic products.

This presentation deals with Padín's Inobjetales, as well as the artist's own critique of them. After the rehearsals, the artist found himself forced to acknowledge that the initial purpose – that is, the "dematerialisation" of art – was not possible. At least a minimum support frame was always necessary to transmit the information. From this realisation, Padín directed his efforts towards what he called as a "language of action": a kind of diffuse grammar in which action could serve to critically analyse reality, communicate it and, perhaps, intervene in it.

With his magazines, publications, exhibitions and mailed proposals, Padín did a huge amount of transnational connective work. His appropriation of the material culture of the postal system served to support critical and self-critical practices, which became politically radicalised as the Uruguayan and Latin American context developed. As the 1970s progressed, dictatorships, repression and violence spread throughout the region Latin American region. Padín ended up in prison in 1977. Some of his postal sendings had been detected by the police system of the Uruguayan civil-military dictatorship, and certain artist's publications became evidence for his trial. Curiously, the officialdom, which systematically disregarded experimental artistic practices, on this occasion did pay attention to these artworks, in order to use them against the artist himself.

Period	15 Dec 2022 → 17 Dec 2022
Event title	Centre for European Modernism Studies - Third International Conference 2022: The Materiality of Modernisms
Event type	Conference
Conference number	Third
Location	Lisboa, PortugalShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International