UNI/vers(;) Visual and Experimental Poetry Portfolio | Guillermo Deisler

Between 1958 and 1960 he studied at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Chile, where he specialized in ceramic and engraving techniques. He also studied theater design, scenography and lighting at the Escuela Nocturna de Teatro of the same university. He was a sculpture student of José Caracci and Claudio Tarragó. Between 1967 and 1973 he worked as a professor in the Plastic Arts Department of the Universidad de Antofagasta, Chile. He was also a poet, writer, author of the book “Grrr” and works of visual poetry. In 1963 he founded Ediciones Mimbre, where he published more than fifty titles by young poets and writers using a hand press and woodcut illustrations. His creative interest was focused on Latin American poetic experiences that were grouped under the name of “new poetry” establishing contacts and exchanges with their authors through mail art (Mail Art). After being arrested in Antofagasta in 1973 for his political ideas, he went into exile in France and Bulgaria. Between 1970 and 1993 he actively participated in the Mail-Art movement. Between 1986 and 1995 he lived in Halle, Germany, where he worked as a set designer and graphic artist for the Opera House in that city, where he died after a long illness. In 1987 he initiated the international Mail-Art Magazine UNI/vers(;), a portfolio of visual and experimental poetry. Forty artists participated in each folder issue with a print run of 100 issues. Thirty-five issues were acquired by the Saxony Library, Dresden, Germany; Schiller National Museum Marbach, Germany; Herzog August Library of Wolfenbüttel, Germany; State University Library, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Museum of Modern Art, New York, George Pompidou Center and National Library of Paris, Mediathéque Ecole des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris.