The Bienal de São Paulo—the international art event that was created in 1951 and, from 1962, was organized by the Fundación de la Bienal de São Paulo—celebrated its sixteenth edition in 1981. The event’s organizer and curator, the professor and historian Walter Zanini (1925–2013), had been the director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo since the previous decade. His lengthy tenure had given him the chance to meet Clemente Padín (b. 1939) and see his work, since the experimental poet and performance artist had settled in São Paulo when he went into exile. This document—the letter of invitation—created a difficult situation for the Brazilian curator, the Uruguayan artist, and the Uruguayan dictatorship, because Padín had just been released from prison and, under the terms of his “probation,” was forbidden to enter or leave the country, or to receive or send correspondence. Padín was consequently unable to travel, and his presentation for the XVI Bienal de São Paulo, El artista está al servicio de la comunidad (1975), had to be performed by his friend, the Basque artist who lived in Brazil, Francisco Iñarra. The piece expressed the need for art that was understood as being “inherent to the activities and thinking of society as a whole.” Padín saw his piece as a departure from artistic values that focused on the elite, a way of breaking with the concept of “art” as an immediate response to the demands of the market.
[As complimentary reading, see the following articles in the ICAA digital archive: by Olga Larnaudie “Un memorial para América Latina. Clemente Padín en E.E.U.U.” (doc. no. 1242169); and by Fernando García Esteban “Panorama General de la VI Bienal de Arte de San Pablo” (doc. no. 1233584)].