This exhibition celebrates the innovative mail artist Edgardo Antonio Vigo, bringing together his mail art, visual poetry, performative actions, and expanded publications to shed light on this little-known artist and his role in Argentine experimentalism. Beginning in the 1960s, from his quiet hometown of La Plata, Vigo and fellow local artists developed an extensive network of contacts in Latin America and Europe, making the city a hub of the international mail art network. Interested in ideas about mass media and alternative channels of communication, Vigo nevertheless maintained an intimate and human touch in his handmade works, which he described as cosas (“things”). Concerned with the question of art’s relationship with politics, he was strongly affected by political turmoil in Argentina, particularly after his son was disappeared by the military junta in 1976. Despite political censorship, Vigo’s deeply moving letters and beautifully crafted graphic works found their way to mail artists the world over, a testament to his passionate ethical commitment.
Organized by Zanna Gilbert, C-MAP Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, and Jennifer Tobias, Reader Services Librarian, MoMA Library.