Eugenio Dittborn, To Return (RTM) Airmail Painting No. 103, 1993
Born in Chile in 1943, Dittborn based much of his work on the critical examination of the marginal position of his home country in relation to wider international developments.
He adopted photography as a means to document his surroundings and combined this with excerpts found in books and newspapers. The paintings are made using traditional craft based skills such as stitching and screen printing onto thin folded sections of cheap non-woven fabric. Since their production in the early 80's, the Airmail Paintings have constantly been on the move; the large panels are neatly folded into cardboard envelopes and are sent by post to the gallery they will be shown in.
"These itinerant artworks collect meanings like souvenirs, as they journey from place to place, across borders, over time. Made, in part, in response to Santiago's place at the periphery of the international art scene and partly to circumvent the oppressive and regimented structures of Chile's military government, (as well as to reflect previous periods of colonization and repression) these mobile visual messages are free to go anywhere and initiate an evolving dialogue with their global audience."
"The Airmail Paintings were conceived for at least two specific sites; that of the sender and that of the receiver, as well as for breaking/producing the distance between the two." Eugenio Dittborn.
Eugenio Dittborn, To Travel (RTM) Airmail Painting No. 76, 1990