Volume 30, No. 2, Jun 2007
Mail Art & Visual Poetry
NEWS
Multiplicity/Multiplicidad: An Exhibition of Artistamps and Mailart Archives, curated by Eleanor Kent, Fernando Garcia Delgado & Juan Carlos Romero at SomArts Bay Gallery, 934 Brannan St., San Francisco, CA through 25 July. SomArts Gallery in collaboration with Vortice Argentina, Buenos Aires, presents “Multiplicity/Multiplicidad: Mailart & Artistamp Show” from July 5th through 25th, at SomArts Gallery, 934 Brannan St., San Francisco, 94103.The exhibit features wonderful artworks made to be sent through the mail from the archives of veteran Mail Artists from Canada, Argentina and the United States. The exhibit is accompanied by two lectures on the histories of Mail Art and Artist Postage Stamps.
Many of the artists featured in the exhibit have recently shown stamps at the Fine Art Museum in Budapest, Hungary, in the exhibition, “Parastamps.” Anna Banana and Jas Felter from British Columbia, Canada are pioneers in this field. Work from their collections will be exhibited with those of three Bay Area artists Patricia Tavenner, Eleanor Kent and John Held, Jr. The idea of the show was created by Fernando Delgado, an Argentine artist and member of the mailart group Vortice Argentina. www.vorticeargentina.com.ar/
Delgado will show his work and also mail art by mail artists from all over South America. He and Kent co-curated the exhibition.
At the opening reception on 5 July, there was a performance by Anna Banana, formerly of SF and member of the Bay Area Dada group in the 70’s. Also Musaic, a small Bay Area men’s a cappella vocal ensemble, sang international songs. Jas Felter was on hand to talk about a part of the show of stamps from “Motherland/Fatherland,” an exhibit he co-curated in Russia in 2002, viewable online at http://jas.faximum.com/asg/room_6/mf_cat.html but not seen in USA before.
Accompanying this exhibition was a lecture by San Francisco artist John Held, jr. on the History of Mail Art, on Thursday, July 12th. There l also was a presentation by Mail Art Queen Patricia Tavenner on the History of Artist Stamps, on Tuesday, July 17th.
contact: (415) 552-2131 ext 7
info@somArts.org
www.somArts.org
PARASTAMP - Four Decades of Artistamps from Fluxus to Internet. 23 March - 24 June 2007. Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. This temporary exhibition will be displayed in the special Print & Drawing Cabinet of the Museum. (see at the end of this mail some more info + pictures about the museum, which is one of the most important museums in Central Europe with a collection from Egyptian Art till the 20th Century) Press release of the ParaStamp show: www.szepmuveszeti.hu/web/guest/articleview?mi_layout_id=29.30&mi_article_id=99
A catalog in English and Hungarian has been published in the museum’s traditional series with some illustrations. A preface for the catalog was written by art critic Peter Frank, there is an introduction to the world of artistamps by Kata Bodor (art historian) and an interview with Gyorgy Galantai (curator).
As an integral part of the exhibition a complete internet site is going to be published and will be available on several computers in the exhibition space, of the Museum. The internet site is already under development and is reachable from: www.artpool.hu/Artistamp/. The Parastamp exhibition is the product of one and a half years of preparatory - research and systematisation - work. Based on the various documents and publications available, a collection of materials has been compiled in order to provide an overview of the history of the artistamp through past exhibitions.
This material, together with the clearly arranged documentation of Michael Bidner’s estate and additional pieces from the Artistamp Museum of Artpool, can be studied at leisure by researchers and any interested party during the exhibition in Artpool, in the Artistamp Research Corner during opening hours.
The Gmunder Symposium and the Thomas Bernhard Archiv are presenting an exhibition on 27 July called “Words from and for Ilse Garnier” with the participation of such visual poets as Klaus Peter Dencker, Heinz Gappmayr, Eugen Gomringer, Klaus Groh, Gerhard Jaschke, Angelika Kaufmann, Josef Linschinger, Franz Mon, Pierre Garnier among others. The exhibition extends through 30 August. The address is Johann Orth Allee 23, 4810 Gmunden, Austria.
MAIL ART CALL
Images Against War. Any medium, no deadline. Jpegs or any snail mail. No jury, no returns. Exhibition in the web: Image Gallery Against War from Boek 861. Send to:Taller del Sol, Apartado 861 43080 Tarragona, España. Put your own image in: boek861.com/no_war/index.html
Brain Cell Fractals. Ryosuke Cohen. Send him 150 stickers, artistamps, rubberstamps, etc. and he will send you a list of participants, a beautifully produce color print of all participants’ work. Send to Ryosuke Cohen, 3-76-1-A613 Yagumokitaho, Moriguchi-City, Osaka 570, Japan. braincell@k6.dion.ne.jp
Neo DADA. Ongoing project. Send self made postcards 4 x 6” (10.1 x 15.2 cm). Any medium, no envelopes, documentation to all, no returns. Online gallery and possible exhibition. P.O. Box 661, New York, NY 10116.
Shadow Play. Slightly serious artist seeks fun, intelligent shadows for international art project. Blondes, brunettes and redheads preferred, but all shadows welcome. Please send a photograph of your shadow with your name written on the back. Shadows to feature in upcoming exhibition. Send to Wei-Ho Ng, Chelsea College of Art, Manresa Rd., London SW3 61S, England. artshadow@hotmail.com Deadline: ongoing.
Mail Art/Visual Poetry Call for Palestine, Lebanon, Human Rights-Peace-Freedom. Size: A4 limit. Any medium, 2D; deadline: ongoing. All works will be displayed on davidbaptistechirot.blogspot.com. Mail contributions to David-Baptiste Chirot, 740 N. 29 #108, Milwaukee, WI 53208 USA or to davidbchirot@hotmail.com
Hummingbirds - Colibri. Send mail art inspired on/with hummingbirds. Any medium, any size. No deadline and Valeria will answer your themes. All items will be published on her blog, valeriazunzun.blogspot.com. Mail to Valeria Zunzun, 1412 Euclid Ave. #15, Miami Beach, FL 33139 USA. Or to valeriazunzun@gmail.com
Send a photo of yourself standing or sitting in front of your bookcase or bookshelves. No deadline. Answer to everyone. Bibliotheca Gullbiana, Staai 41, NL-6127 AB Grevenbicht, The Netherlands.
The Beatles Forever. Postcard size 10 x 15 cm. The Tree of Poetry, Tiziana Baracchi, Via Cavallotti 83b, I-30171 Venezia Mestre, Italia. No deadline.
Red Letters. Use red ink and write a text of 20 words accompanied by a drawing. Add time, day, month & year. All the red letters will be scanned and put on this website: 20words.org View the web gallery to have an idea of the project. If you want to receive a red letter from another person, add also a self-addressed envelope and a SASE (this is only for US participants). Red Letters, CC #2272, 16800 Point Lookout Road, St Mary’s City MD, 20686 USA
Public Art. Postcard size. Any medium, visual poetry wanted. No jury, no deadline, ongoing project to introduce the community of Prescott, Arizona to mail art. Works will be on display at Prescott College in Spring-Summer 2006. Documentation to all. Send to Grace Vajda, Prescott College, Mailbox 580, 220 Grove Ave., Prescott, AZ 86301 USA. Please include your e-mail or snail mail address.
Call for Books and Zines. Seeking donations for “independent reference library” in Kosovo, former Yugoslavia. Kosovo is a struggling country with an average monthly salary of $30 and unemployment at 60%. Any zine or book donations are welcomed. Also T-shirts and postage stamps for children’s collections. Send to Switzerland and it will be forwarded since it is more secure. No internet access. Send to RLP, c/o PF44, CH4142, Munchenstein 3, Switzerland.
Feast of the History. We are the history/know ourselves and know it. Any medium, any technique. Deadline: 31 August 2007. Send to Anna Boschi, Via Tanari 1445 B, Castel S. Pietro Terme/BO, Italy. cermasi@libero.it
Beetles. Beetles are the most varied order of insects. This project intends to explore how we perceive them. Beauty or Beast? The works will be posted in the following site: http://wandrefalk.multiply.com and also will be part of a gallery show at the University of BrasÃlia (date to be announced). Please send only postcards that deal with any technique. Deadline: 30 July 2008. Send to Marco Santos-Silva, SHIS Q117 conj 3 casa 3, Brasilia DF71645-030, Brazil. Markus@ilustrare.bio.br
Chairs. 4“x 6” postcards of chairs, stools or any form of single seating. For display in Paper and Postage, Moat Gallery, Library Square, Vancouver, Apr 16-29, 2008 All submissions posted on paperandpostage.blogspot.com Include snail mail and/or email address for documentation. For my exhibition please send me only postcards that deal with any technique. Deadline: 31.12.2007 Send to: Lorraine Kwan / #202, 3580 West 41st Ave / Vancouver BC V6N 3E6 / Canada / pixelkart@gmail.com Also themes of Snails, Clocks.
What time is it? Is it 20.08 or 2008? What is your time? Now? tomorrow?
In Finland mail art is not yet widely known. Now I have a change to arrange a mail art exhibition in the City of Tampere, in the splendid exhibition rooms of Tampere Hall, with the aim to make mail art better known to those living in Tampere.
The fine exhibition area, Winter Garden, is rather small, it may hold only about 40-50 works. So, contrary to the civilized practice of mail art, I am forced to limit the number of works chosen. Those works that canÌt be displayed in Tampere Hall will be exhibited in Gallery G, a gallery founded by myself. It is also a Mini-Museum dedicated to mail art. It is no worse place, but naturally Tampere Hall has a finer reputation, as it has housed large international congresses and EU-meetings.
What is the time you live? Tell me about that in mail art pictures (max A4 or 8.5 x 11 inches; min. postcard). The exhibition will take place either at the end of 2007 or at the beginning of 2008. I will be informed of that as soon as the congress and concert program will be settled in Tampere.
No returns, no fees, documentation to all. Maximum size: A4. Deadline: 30 September 2007. Send to: Paul Tiilila, Kuusitie 4, 36600 Palkane, Finland.
Tampere is the third largest city in Finland and the largest inland centre in the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway). Tampere Hall (Tampere-talo) is the largest concert and congress centre in the Nordic countries. Tampere Hall is located in Tampere on the edge of a lovely park, just across the road from the main building of Tampere University and within a short walking distance of the city centre.
For more information: Paul Tiililä paul.tiilila@pp.inet.fi
Titanic: “Portraits of People Drowning”. Seems quite weird and eerie But the exhibit here for the summer at The Visual Arts Center ( eating up all three galleries) presents you with a boarding pass when you enter and upon completing the tour of artifacts you turn in your pass to see if you survived or died on the ship. There are many art, literary and musical works about drowning from the 60’s pop art of Roy Lichtenstein to Biblical text ( Noah and all that water) to German expressionist poems. Hope you will be inspired to submit your impressions on the topic to:
TITANIC
M. Jankowski
archive\832 Grace Avenue
Panama City, Florida 32401
Deadline: 23 August 2007.
Postcards from Darwin. Open exhibition at the Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre. To be held between 15th November and the 21st December 2007.
Darwin, as a young man, travelled the world in the Beagle, as a result of which he later wrote the first edition of “On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. This open-call for submissions to a mail-art exhibition at the Exeter Phoenix invites a creative and imaginative interpretation of letters and postcards home from the great evolutionist. Closing date for posted submissions is: 12th November 2007. Please address all submissions to:
Howard Warnerford
EXETER PHOENIX.
BRADNINCH PLACE ,GANDY STREET
EXETER EX4 3LS, UK
7rd International Bienal of Postal Art of Universitas School, October 2007. Any theme. Works must be sent no later than September 2007. Send to: Rua Venâncio José Lisboa, nº 06, Ponta da Praia- Santos - São Paulo – Brasil CEP: 11030-080
”FEAST OF THE HISTORY” WE ARE THE HISTORY: KNOW OURSELVES AND KNOW IT
Since some years in Bologna and its hinterland takes place the “Feast of History” with meetings, shows, exhibitions that are placed in palaces, squares, streets, churches, cloisters, theatres, schools and public places. Here we talk about the most common historiography issues: the roots and the antecedents of our presents, the unresolved enigmas, the inheritances, the mysteries, the premises and prospective of issues tied to the environment, economy, relations, communications. There are no limits or boundaries of time. The themes that are discussed are those that form our daily life, and that approach us to our ancestors, here like in the rest of the world: music, food, sport, fashion, art, religion, politics, technology. Bologna and the centres of its territory become therefore the theatre for a series of undertakings promoted and organized by the Laboratorio Multidisciplinare di Ricerca Storica and by the Alma Mater along with many public boards and private associations. But especially thanks to the presence of the students, of every school course and of any provenance. It’s they who are the protagonists of the events, participating in meeting with scholars of international fame, putting out the results of their researches led in collaboration with a lot of town’s institution. Therefore, it is not just a simple parade of events, but a “feast” in its true sense, as in it participate many components of the town in a meeting between local and universal history for a better respect of the historical property and a better awareness of the great recent-events.
PROGETTO in collaborazione con /project by: Laboratorio Multidisciplinare di Ricerca Storica, Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione, Dipartimento di Discipline Storiche dell’Università di Bologna. Created by Anna Boschi. Deadline: 31 August 2007. Any medium. A4 (30 x 21 cm) size, no Xerox. Send works to:
MAILARTMEETING ARCHIVES - by Anna Boschi
Via G. a G. Tanari n. 1445/B
40024 Castel S.Pietro Terme (BO) – Italy – archivio@mailartmeeting.com
No returns – Documentation to the participants (tutti i lavori saranno visibili nel sito /see all works at www.mailartmeeting.com) Exhibition in October 2007.
Fill The Ford (Fully) Folly! mail art call. ongoing. no deadline. periodic documentation. Send found or unnecessary metal keys to fill the interior of a ’50 model Ford to confound future archaeologists.
buZ blurr
908 E. Main Street
Gurdon, Arkansas
71743-1835
USA
Ray Johnson Micro Galleries I & II Mail Art Show
Theme: “Beuys will be Beuys” This exhibit pays homage to the creator of the Free International University and the ideas of social sculpture. So let your art reflect and express “how we mould and shape the world in which we live.” “the total artwork of the future social order”, and “free democratic socialism”. Joseph Beuys
The gallery one will be on view in the The Mabee-Simpson Library on the campus of Lyon College and gallery two will be on view at Morning Star Coffee House both in Batesville, Arkansas, USA, There will be a weekly rotation of 4 to 5 artists per gallery over the course of one year. This exhibition period will be extended depending on the response from the International Mail Art Network.
Size is limited to 4“x 6” or 10.16 cm X 15.24 cm for postcards and 8” or 20.32 cm overall for 3D pieces. Email submissions accepted. Please include your name, address and email address. You are welcome to send more than one piece. Exhibition documentation will include a website and catalogue to every participant + CD. Deadline to be received November 30, 2007. Show will be installed the first week of January and the concurrent website will be up that week.Thank you for your support with this project.
John Chiaromonte
250 Lilly St.
Batesville, Arkansas, USA
Email: Celticzazen@yahoo.com
Webpage: www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/jchiaromonte/FIU%20Batesville.htm
Celebration of Xerox’s anniversary. Next year will be the seventieth anniversary of the invention of xerography. To celebrate the magic photocopier and its inventor Chester Carlson you are invited to contribute copy-art works in which the machine has been used to produce an original one-of-a-kind photocopy. Size: between A4 (30 x 21 cm) and A5 (70% A4). Catalogue to all the participants. Send to: Gianni Simone, 3-3-23 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama-shi, 226-0027 Kanagawa-ken, Japan
“You are so sweets”. Send us your stories about sweets - Deadline:30.09.2007. Send to:
Hospice d’Havré
100 rue de Tournai
59200 Tourcoing (France)
All the participants works will be on-line in the virtual gallery of the mail art project website : www.jevousaiapportedesbonbons.com Your mail art will be gathered to be exposed at the mail art festival in Hospice d’Havré (France) from 17th October to 21th November 2007.
