In this review of La caja del cachicamo, the action art event Diego Barboza presented at the Parque del Este (Caracas, October 1974), the Venezuelan artist describes its purpose and its components. The goal of the event is that the participants’ interaction should generate a sense of plasticity; Barboza describes his project as a collective work of art offered to passersby in public spaces, and explains that the box contains “a couple of tubes full of bells” with the word cachicamo [armadillo] stenciled several times on the sides, the predominant color is red, and there is popular and folk music playing. Barboza concludes his review by saying that “La caja del cachicamo is a collective work of art.”  

The Venezuelan artist Diego Barboza (1945–2003) published this review of the street exhibition La caja del cachicamo (Caracas, 1974) in the first issue of Buzón de Arte/Arte de Buzón, the bilingual (Spanish-English) (tabloid) magazine he managed and edited. The magazine appeared just twice: in January and March (Caracas, 1976). Barboza describes his review as a report on the event (which took place two years before Buzón de Arte was published), and submits that it is mail art. It is interesting that—despite the fact that this piece includes folklore, music, and traditional Venezuelan fiestas—by classifying La caja del cachicamo as a kind of documentary in Buzón de Arte magazine, Barboza was expressing the guiding principles outlined in the editorial of this pioneer of mail art in Venezuela. They go beyond any local intentions the authors may entertain to present their works as “non-commercial art on the international stage.” According to the editorial, the goal is “to expand the communication potential of creative language” among different artists and countries.  

Barboza was a pioneer of this kind of artistic expression in Venezuela, and of the “happenings” he organized in public spaces in London in 1970. 

[For additional information on this subject, see in the ICAA digital archive the editorial written by Barboza published in the 1st issue of the magazine Buzón de Arte/Arte de Buzón (Caracas, January, 1976) (doc. no. 1154618). As regards articles published in the 1st issue of the magazine, see the essay by Edgardo Antonio Vigo and Horacio Zabala “Arte-correo una nueva forma de expresión” (doc. no. 1154763). See also, in the 2nd issue of the magazine by Vigo “Arte-correo: una nueva etapa en el proceso revolucionario de la creación” (doc. no. 1102031)].