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The Unmaker of Objects:Edgardo Antonio Vigo's Marginal MediaThis exhibition celebrates the mail art, visual poetry, performative works, and publications of the Argentine artist Edgardo Antonio Vigo (1928–1997). From his quiet hometown of La Plata, Vigo developed an extensive network of contacts in the Americas and Europe, making the city a hub of the international mail art movement—a loose network of artists who exchanged ideas, art, and poetry through the postal system. From his defiantly local position, Vigo developed an internationalism tempered by a sharp critique of the foreign policy of the United States, from its role in the Vietnam War to its support of authoritarian Latin American governments. Interested in mass media and alternative channels of communication, Vigo nevertheless maintained an intimate human touch, producing handmade works that he bluntly called cosas, or “things,” to challenge the hierarchies of aesthetic tradition. Consistent with his embrace of mail art, which involves the participation of a recipient, he developed instructions, actions, and visual poems to be carried out or completed by others. He also published magazines and editions that promoted an accessible, democratized art in place of the unique and valuable art object. Vigo was active during the period when Argentina was ruled by a military junta, which, in 1976, “disappeared” his son Palomo. Vigo and the artist Graciela Gutierréz Marx together adopted the pseudonym G. E. Marx Vigo and campaigned for Palomo’s return; they often stamped the envelopes they sent out through the mail art network with the English phrase “Set Free Palomo.” Despite government censorship, Vigo’s moving letters and graphic works reached artists the world over, testaments to his dedicated ethical commitment. For more on Vigo see post.at.moma.org and the Centro de Arte Experimental Vigo. Organized by Zanna Gilbert, C-MAP Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, and Jennifer Tobias, Reader Services Librarian, MoMA Library. Thanks to Mariana Marchesi, Silvia Dolinko, Karen Grimson, David Horvitz, and Vanessa Davidson.
Vigo’s “Things” Vigo called himself an “unmaker of objects." Instead, he made cosas (Spanish for “things”)—works that did not clearly fall within traditional mediums such as painting and sculpture. Vigo’s cosas were conceptual in nature and made to be completed by the participant. They ranged from a series of “signalings” of everyday scenes or objects that viewers were invited to regard aesthetically, and actions and poetry “to be created” by the participant. Vigo's notion of “prácticas revulsivas” (revulsive practices) denoted work or actions that attempted to intervene in and heighten the viewer’s everyday perception, and indirectly, their political consciousness by engaging them in unfamiliar activities. Verde Amarillo Rojo. Lo Invita a Ver ‘Manojo de Semáforos’ (Green yellow red. You are invited to see ‘Handful of Traffic Lights’) 1968 Vigo’s Cosas: Conferencia/Unconferencia (Vigo’s things: Lecture/Unlecture) 1968 Esta tarjeta ha sido sumergida en las aguas de ‘Puntalara-Beach’ en la zona llamada “bocacerrada” el 21 de septiembre/70, de 9 a 10hrs.-conste . . . (This card was submerged in the waters of ‘Puntalara Beach,’ in the ‘bocacerrada’ zone, September 21, 1970, 9:00–10:00am) 1970 (In) Acto a Realizar ([Un] Act to be created) 1969 or 1970 Actos a Realizar no 0001/69 (Acts to be created) 1969 Hazlo (Do it) 1970 Tríptico Remarcado (ley 18.188) (Marked/Remarked triptych, [law 18.188]) 1970 Obras (in) Completas ([In] Complete works) 1969 Ya Votó: ‘Poema Demagógico’: Urna No. 1 (‘Demagogic poem’: Urn No.1) 1969 Manual e Instrucciones para la Construcción de una ‘Obra de Arte’ (Occidental y Cristiana) (Manual and instructions for the construction of a “work of art” [Western and Christian]) 1969 or 1970 Cancelled n.d. “We note a change that has happened in the entire field of art; in the cinema, the theatre and dance, we find there is an organic interrelation of these tendencies. The “happening,” “event,” “congregation,” “show,” “environment,” “art to be made” are labels that try to define precisely this NATURAL INTEGRATION of … elements inherited from dada magazines, futurists, from the Russian vanguards and from the neo-plasticists (DE STIJL) also contribute to this visual poetry.” Edgardo Antonio Vigo, “New Poetic Vanguard in Argentina,” 1967
Diagonal Cero Magazine (1962–1969) Vigo began publishing his magazine Diagonal Cero in 1962. It was named after a street in his hometown of La Plata (known as “the city of diagonals” because of its many diagonally-oriented streets) and the name refers to an imaginary Avenue Zero. With the exception of being unbound, it was initially a fairly conventional magazine designed to circulate new poetry. As time went on, though, Diagonal Cero began to play more and more with what a publication could be, developing a strong editorial and graphical style. Of the run of twenty-eight issues, number 25 is missing because it was “dedicated to nothingness.” Emptiness is also addressed in the “Cavity Manifesto” in issue 28, as well as by repeated perforations and holes. In 1969, Vigo ceased publishing the magazine with a characteristic wordplay emblazoned on the inner sleeve: ‘No VA MÁS’ (All bets ARE OFF), both a statement to indicate the termination of the magazine and a denunciation of political conditions in Argentina.
Diagonal Cero 1, 1962 "We are in the DIAGONAL ZERO, in the center of the issue, observing our observers, attracting and letting ourselves be attracted. We are in the DIAGONAL ZERO, which is not to be central. We are contradictory. Contradiction [is] equivalent to expressive liberty. We are at the DIAGONAL ZERO of the contemporary, we are in an identifiable city and we are at the beginning.” Edgardo Antonio Vigo, Diagonal Cero 1, 1962 Diagonal Cero 14, 1965 Diagonal Cero 17, 1966 Edgardo Antonio Vigo. Cavity Manifesto, Diagonal Cero 21, 1967 Diagonal Cero 22, 1967 Works by Carlos Ginzburg, Oración Equivalente (Equivalent phrase); Edgardo Antonio Vigo, Reloj Erótico (Erotic clock); Jorge de Luxán Gutíerrez, Actualidades (Emerging issues), Diagonal Cero 24, 1967 Homenaje a Lucio Fontana (Homage to Lucio Fontana) and Concrete su Poema Visual (Make your visual poem), Diagonal Cero 27, 1968
 
Hexágono ’71 Magazine (1971–1975) Hexágono ’71 was distributed as an envelope containing illustrations, visual poems, works “to be created,” essays, drawings, stories, telegrams, and calls for works by both international and local authors. Hexágono ’71 contained no editorial commentary, page numbers, or editorial credits. Furthermore, the issues were systematized by a lettering system rather than the customary numbers: a, ab*, ac, b*c, b*d, b*e, cd, ce, cf, de, df, dg and e. Vigo referred to himself as the editor in-responsible (“non-responsible editor”) of the magazine and said, “There are no fixed collaborators, the issue takesshape as the works come in.” The magazine grew more and more international from 1971 to 1975, uniting artists from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, the United States, France, Italy and the UK. Hexágono ’71 was inaugurated during the dictatorship of 1966–73. Vigo wished to “share the necessity of breaking the dangerous suffocation that hovers over the universal creative-investigator’s free expression.” Señalamiento VII / A de tu Mano (Signaling VII: Of your hand), Hexágono ’71 a, 1971 Head of Che, Souvenir de dolor (Head of Che, Souvenir of pain), Hexágono ’71 ce, 1973 Souvenir de Viet-Nam (Vietnam Souvenir), Hexágono ’71 a, 1971 Solucione sus Problemas (in) Estéticos (Solve your [un]aesthetic problems), Hexágono ’71 ab*, 1971 Soluciones Económicas Oferecidas por el ‘Systema’ al pueblo (Economic solutions offered to the people by the system), Hexágono ’71, 1974 La (in) Comunicación de los Medios de Comunicación Masivos (The [un]communication of the mass media), Hexágono ’71 b*e, 1972 Hexágono ’71 dg and df, 1974 El Propio Militante (The real militant), Hexágono ’71 cf, 1973 Poema Matemático Censurado (Censored mathematical poem), Hexágono ’71 ce, 1973 Argentina ’71, Hexágono ’71 ce, 1973
“My work (visual poetry, conceptual art, useless objects, hermetic comics) is testimony to my unwavering position of absolute freedom for the artist.” Edgardo Antonio Vigo, 1974
La Llave/Abrelatas que Viajó (Junto a 200) (The key / can opener that traveled [with 200 others]) 1971 Trelew 1974 Second Attempt to Beat His Own Life Record 1983 G.E. Marx Vigo, Ambodos (Bothtwo) 1980s Project for the Action: Ephemere Frontier Destroyed by People Marching On 1977
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