Clemente Padín was born in Uruguay in 1939. Editor of the magazines Ovum 10 and Ovum (1969-1977), he organized numerous exhibitions including "International New Poetry Exposition" (1969); "Exhaustive New Poetry Exposition" (1972); "Creative Post-card Festival" (1974: the first documented mailart show in Latin America) and "Experimental Uruguayan Poetry" (1987).
He has published many books including: "Los Horizontes Abiertos" (two editions, 1969/1989); "Visual Poems" (three editions including Xexoxial Ed. Madison, Wisconsin, USA, 1990); "Paz=Pan/Peace=Bread" (Ed. Fluxshoe, New York, USA, 1986); "Actions Works" (three editions 1983-88-92); "Happy Bicentennial" (Daylight Ed., Holland, 1976); "Omaggio a Beuys" (IAC Ed., Oldenburg, RFA, 1976); "Sign (o) graphics" (IAC Ed., Oldenburg, 1975); "De la Representation a l' Action" (Doc(k)s, Ed. France, 1975); "Angulos" (Amodulo Ed., Milano, Italy, 1972). His visual poems have been exhibited in numerous countries, and since 1970 he has been performing his action-works all over the world.
Padín was jailed for a period of two years and three months by the Uruguayan dictatorship which ruled the country from 1973 to 1985. The alleged cause for the imprisonment was "hurting the morale and reputation of the army". According to Padin's own words, the real causes of his detention were "his artistical activities against the brutality of the dictatorship and to organize the Counter-Biennal in front of the Latin American Section of the X Biennal of Paris, France (1977) curated by the authorities of the Fine Arts Museum of Uruguay.

They only tortured me a little bit".