Roberto ALTMANN [Cuban] (born in 1942 )I prefer to damage your eyes, rather than leave them indifferent, 1965Oil on canvas. Full-length monogrammed. Signed and dated on the back. 120 x 60 cmExhibition: Lettrisme et hypergraphie, 31 January-28 February 1966, Europa center, Galerie Europa, Berlin, referenced in the catalogue under No. 2 (preface by Michel Tapié). "I am not paid by an occultist to bring him clients, but I prefer to damage your eyes rather than leave them indifferent". This sentence, taken up here by Roberto Altmann, and then by Ben the same year, was pronounced by Isidore Isou in 1951 in his film Traité de bave et d'éternité, the first cinematic manifesto of the Lettrist movement. This experimental film, with its "discreet" editing, is based on the total disjunction of sound and image. The film is deliberately soiled and degraded.