MAIL-ART - A HISTORIC OVERVIEW
Reproduced with the kind permission of Joachim, Suikerrui 5, box 10, 2000 Antwerpen. Tel: 03/232.13.43 - Jose Vandenbroucke, Temple Post, Pikkelstraat 49, 8540 Deerlijk. Tel: 056/71.65.26
During and after the two world wars, artists got aware for need of a new playground and attitude of art activity, to be able for keeping alive the relationship between art and social reality within a new 20th Century context. Dada and later on Fluxus expressed growing needs for collectivity art-studios which should be accessible for as much as possible people worldwide. So creating a new Global village. Also a goal was to liberate the artists from limits of their own specific discipline: the mixed media happening was rising. During the '50s, Ray Johnson provocated a worldwide web of interaction by creating the New York School for Correspondence. Within a few decennia and particular during the contestations of the late '60s, this exploded into a huge amount of exchanges and artistic interaction, mainly organised by using the national postal services on a new creative and playful way. The expression 'MAIL-ART' appeared. Many participated. An enormous network originated all over a major part of the world.
After three decades, artists realized that art institutions were not motivated to handle the enormous offer of multivariable, intended as 'not for sale' art, which circulated into the mail-art network and its adjoining disciplines. They realized that mail-art would never be a clear definable period nor method. From then, some faced it as something to ignore. Most declared that mail-art belonged to the recent past, a phenomonen that now could be catalogued and valued definitive. In the late '80s, the news was spread that mail-art was finished.
Today, after about 10 years, all who are still active are daily surprised by all the messages, images and traffic that is exchanging by mail, fax, telephone, e-mail, audio and videotape and they feel that it is important for their and other cultures. The mail-art-network is a constant change of enormous potential and creativity. Still a great number of people are active in mail-art. Some besides their other activities as an artist, some just for mail-art. All of those know that they never will have any financial compensation for this production. But they all have their own reasons or passions to be active in the network: Expression, Art Activity, Exchange, Publicating, Exhibiting a.s.o.
In mail-art the society is more than in any other discipline the environment of the artist. It needs attention and public playground. And society must be informed about this phenomenon. However as one of the Earthmothers of artistic communicative interaction, mail-art is almost ignored.
MAIL ART IN BELGIUM
To create a historical change, a group of Belgian Mail Artists decided to organize a project. On May 24th 1997, Annina Van Scbroeck & Luc Fierens (Mr Luce), Geert de Decker (Sztuka Fabryka), Baudhuin Simon (Pigmail), Jose Vandenbroucke (Temple Post) and Joachim started under the project name 'Ca Ira!' with the following goals to reach:
To create more acknowledgement to Mail-art within a larger audience
To place Mail-art in a historical context, by showing the today's situation so that there can be a start to rehabilitate the public value of this artistic tendency.
Because it is not realistic to organize such a project on a worldwide scale, the organisation has decided to respect, for this project, the Belgian borders.
In emphasis, the organisation will not found this project to show a historical overview but will present the today's artistic creations of the Belgian-Mail-Art-Network to place it within a historical context to prove that Mail-art is alive and generates artistic/communicative impulses without prejudice. The practical goal is to realize in the summer of 1998 a book about the actual network based on the Belgian point of view and to organise one or more exhibitions to promote and document this book.
Due to the non-commercial character of Mail-art, funds must be found by means of subsidies and sponsorships. Also a highly cultural located space for exhibition must be found. The first steps to resolve these have been made. But still information and advice from within or without the network is welcome.
Later on, all in Belgium situated Mail-Art-Networkers will be contacted to participate to the content of the book and exhibition. All participants will get a certain space in both: book and exhibition. The book will be distributed for free.
In order to plan the number of potential participants, we will be grateful if you send us your message of interest. In future, we will send a clear formulated invitation to all know addresses of ex and present Mail-Artists located in Belgium.
Ca Ira, September 1997
Nos sites préféres:
TAM (Ruud
Janssen) http://www.geocities.com/Paris/4947/
Ce cite présente e.a. des interviews de mail-artistes, des
informations sur l'International Union of Mail-Artists (IUOMA) et
sur le collection de cachets de TAM. Il y a plus de 600 pages
on-line avec les interviews d'une quarantaine de mail-artists.
The TAM and IUOMA site provides a list with links to interesting
mail-art sites. There is also a FAQ section about mail-art (very
useful to newcomers to mail-art), a chapter on Ray Johnson and
Fluxus, etc.
IUOMA: iuoma@geocities.com - private: tam@dds.nl
RAT (Charles Francois) http://web.arcadis.be/RAT - e-mail: charfra@arcadis.be
Mail-Art discussion online: http://assembly.nerdworld.com/index.cgi
Mail-interviews overviews and access: http://www.faximum.com/jas.d.lib_tam.htm
Michael Lumb's thesis on mail-art: http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/palace/62/index.html