|
Clemente Padin, Poet/Critic
Padin was born 8 October 1939 in Lascano, Rocha, Uruguay.
He took a degree in Hispanic Literature at the Republic of Uruguay´s University.
Long a political activist of some note, he was jailed for two years and three months by the Uruguayan dictatorship (1983-1985) for "harm to the morale and reputation of the Army." He haad been sentenced to four years but the international artistic solidarity was able to get him freed before he had to serve his full term. The real cause of his detention was his artistic activities against the brutality of the dictatorship and his co-organization of the Counter-Biennal in front of the Latin-American Section of the X Biennal of Paris, France,1977, which was curated by the Fine Arts Museum of Uruguay.
Padin edited the magazines Los Huevos del Plata, 1965-1969; OVUM 10 and OVUM, 1969-1975, and Participación, 1984-1986, and has published books and booklets in France, Germany, Italy,
Venezuela, United States, Holland and Uruguay including Art & People (Light and Dust, Wisconsin, USA) which is now on view at light & dust; Los Horizontes
Abiertos,(two editions, 1969-1989); Visual Poems (four editions: the
first published by OVUM, 1969, the last by Xexoxial Editions, Madison, WI, 1990, and now on-line at grist; Peace=Bread, (Fluxshoe, New York NY,1986); Action-Works (three editions 1983, 1988 and 1992); Happy Bicentennial (Daylight Editions, Holland, 1976);
Omaggio a Beuys; Sign(o)graphics (I.A.C.
Editions, Oldenburg, Germany, 1975-1976); De la Representation a l´Action (Doc(k)s Editions, Marseille, France, 1975); and Angulos (Amodulo Editions, Milan, Italy, 1972); and a number of other works.
He has appeared all over the world, performing such of his action-works as The Poetry Should
Be Done for Everyone (Montevideo, 1970); Lean Your Hand (Cayc Gallery, Buenos Aires, 1971); The Artist Is at the Service of the Community (Sao
Paulo, Brazil, 1975 and 1981); Homage John Heartfield and For Life and
Peace (West Berlin, 1984); Fasting for Liberation in Latin America (Rosario, Argentine, 1984); Memorial Latin America (Philadelphia, 1989); Get Moving Panama (Montevideo, 1990); Latinoamerican Memorial (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1990); Art Strike (Montevideo, 1990); Shadow Project
(Montevideo, 1991, with John Held); Kunst=Kapital (Montevideo, 1993, in
homage to Joseph Beuys); Reading Performance (San
Francisco CA, 1994); Help me to Stick (Santiago, Chile, 1995); Fax-Man (Montevideo, 1995); Willy, for ever... (Mexico,1996, homage to
Guillermo Deisler); There are no dead... (Bentos Goncalves, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Montevideo and Buenos Aires, 1996); Selfrelated Poems (Edmonton, Canada, 1997)
Highly active as a mail artist, Padin has participated in more than 190 exhibitions and in more than 1,000 Mail Art Shows from 1969 to 1997. He has exhibited his works individually in:
Padin was special guest in the XVI Sao Paulo Biennal (Brazil, 1981), and singled out for special mention in the First La Habana Biennal (1984); he received a fellowship from the German
Academy of Arts and Literature, DAAD, West Berlin, Germany (1984) ; was admitted into the II Video Biennal of Medellin, Colombia (1988), and the XI International
Congress in Aesthetic, Nottingham, England (1988),and honored at the Posters Concourse to XXIV Seoul Olympiad, Korea (1988); he took part in Actions, a multidisciplinary artistic event in Chester Springs, Philadelphia, USA (1989); rewarded in XXXVIII Montevideo´s Municipality Saloon (1990); the Fifth
International Biennal of Visual/Experimental Poetry, Mexico City, Mexico saluted him, Edgardo Antonio Vigo and Guillermo Deisler
for their pioneering activities (1996); he was a prominent participant at the Eye Rhymes conference on
visual poetry, Edmonton, Canada, (1997).
He has organized numerous expositions in Uruguay, Argentine, Brasil, Chile,
Panama and Germany, including the International New Poetry Exposition (1969); the Exhaustive New Poetry Exposition (1972); Creative Post-Card Festival (1974, the first documented mail art show in Latin America); Exposition for
Freedoms (1984); Latin America Today (1984,DAAD Gallery,
W.Berlin,Germany); First Video Show (Montevideo,1986); Experimental
Uruguayan Poetry (1987); "Latinoamerican Festival of Art in the Streets
(Montevideo,1990); No More Excuses (1991); Jose Marti: 100th. Anniversary
(1995), and many others.
Padin has worked actively in cyberspace projects since 1992 and has
distributed his works by e-mail and internet since 1993. For more information, visit:
http://www.postypographika.com/menu-en1/paraleng/parp adin/padinbio.htm http://www.postypographika.com/menu-en1/genres/essay/ polkinh1/vispolat.htm http://www.artepostal.org.mx/artistas/padin.html http://www.thing.net/~grist/1&d/padin1.htm http://www.dma.be/b/amphion/sztuka/maa96/publi02.htm http://fileroom.aaup.uic.edu/FileRoom/publication/padin.html. http://www.concentric.net/~Lndb/padin/lcpcont.htm http://www.ubuweg.com/vp/index3.html http://geocities.datacellar.net/Paris/LeftBank/2721
He has been published in scores of magazines and publications throughout the world. His prose has been
translated into English, French, Italian,
Portuguese, Hungarian, Dutch, German, Russian, and several other languages. In short, Clemente Padin has been incredibly active--and seems to have met in person or corresponded with every pluraesthetic poet in the world!
|