> Arte Postale ! /

Arte Postale! is the zine from Vittore Baroni, first issue was published in October 1979 and became soon a significant publication dedicated to "the aesthetics and philosophies" of Mail-Art. The zine is called to be a publication for the ethereal open network.

"I discovered mail art in 1977 and the following year I was already corresponding with an ever increasing number of contacts, a hundred or more, so I soon reached the point when you are not able anymore to find the time for elaborate original answers to each and every single mailing. I needed something readily available to trade with other networkers and that could become the focus for my postal activities, so the natural step to take was to create my own magazine, like other mail artists did before me . . . ." Janssen, R. (1995). [Interview with Vittore Baroni]. TAM Mail-Interview Project [WWW page]. URL http://www.iuoma.org/

Since 1979 numerous issues has been published of Arte Postale!, never focussed on a specific size, style or periodicity, it has become the longest living non-profit publication distributed through the postal system. The title of the zine is a translation of "Mail Art" in Italian, with exclamation mark which reminds Baroni of the excitement of his first encounters in the Mail-Art Network.

As an unmarried student he was able to publish every month an issue from which the first six printed on cheap paper-plate off-set machines, later on he turned to photocopies for a better resolution quality, always produced in one hundred numbered copies. The past years he is only able to publish two issues each year. From the beginning he wanted the zine to look as a "real" magazine, yet it turned gradually into an assembling publication. He collected original pages contributed by various Mail-artists around the world and edited them in an issue adding his own pages and a printed cover.

". . . I always stapled all the pages together, never mind the "preciousness" of some of the works, sealing sometimes the smaller bits into bags or envelopes glued to the pages. Though there were often themes to stick to, participants were usually totally free regarding the size and medium of their contributions (often someone would send a hundred totally different pages), so I also got several tridimensional oddities, like plant leaves, glass beads, ping pong balls and bee-wax bas-reliefs. This forced me sometimes to adopt unusual formats, the most bizarre issue being the "boxed" N.24, with mostly 3D works and resembling a marriage between a mail art mag and a Fluxus box." Janssen, R. (1995). [Interview with Vittore Baroni]. TAM Mail-Interview Project [WWW page]. URL http://www.iuoma.org/

Starting from issue number 52 he stopped with Arte Postale! as an assembling zine, which gave him the freedom to vary and experiment with the number of copies produced. From that point Baroni saw his magazine as a sort of personal collective hand assembled artwork on itself, and the use of inserted artistamps, pieces of papers, folded papers, rubberstamps, etc. in each single copy, he try to reach his goal. Also each issue starts to get focussed on a single theme, selecting the most inspired contributions and arranging them so to make a collective statement on that particular topic. Soon after Arte Postale! as an assembling zine he started to practice this new format, going from the single copy of number 53 the "homage issue" from Mark Pawson with his tribute to the "assembling days" of Arte Postale!, with unique pieces from fifty different Mail-artists, towards the sic hundreds copies of number 63 with a 7" vinyl record from his group 'Le Forbici di Manitu' with the song 'Let's Network Together' as (un)official hymn for the 'Decentralized Worldwide Networking Congress' of 1992. In number 56 he issued the dilemma of "Mail Art & Money" by giving it the provoking title of 'Mail Art & Money DO Mix!' with a real coin glued on each cover. This issue was the documentation of a Mail-Art project for which he had send out several real banknotes in different currencies, ranging from 1 to 50 dollar, to contacts around the globe. To each banknote a humorous request was attached like: "buy me a gift with this money or drink it to my health" or "you are a wonderful artist, keep this money as payment of the mail you just sent me" or "you are a terrible artist, keep this money but please stop mailing me stuff", etc.

Arte Postale! has been used several times as catalogue for a Mail-Art project such as number 47 for a project about "fake Mail-Art invitations", number 71 'Fun in Acapulco' with a permanent exhibition in the children play-room of his father's hotel 'Acapulco' where Baroni works each summer, number 82 was the catalogue for his project 'Call of the Iconoclast' on the theme of icons (political leaders, media celebrities, corporate logos, famous artists, etc.), number 85 'Just 4 F.U.N.? - virtual lands & creative de-globalization' which was a Mail-Art project about artistamps for virtual lands, etc.

More then six hundred networkers from about thirty five different countries, ranging from elementary school kids to well respected artists like Ray Johnson and Ben Vautier, participated into Arte Postale!. Always each contributor has received a free copy of the issue, the remaining copies are send out to some contacts for trade or as a gift. Several international archives has a complete (or almost complete) collection of Arte Postale!, such as the 'Administration Centre/42.292' (Belgium) from Guy Bleus, the 'V.E.C. Archives' (the Netherlands) from Rod Summers and the 'Sackners Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry' in Miami Beach (U.S.A.).

Related Topics:
[01] Baroni, Vittore
[02] Zine
[03] Assembling
[04] Fluxus
[05] Decentralized Networking Congress
[06] Virtual lands
[07] Pawson, Mark
[08] Money
[09] Johnson, Ray
[10] Vautier, Ben
[11] Bleus, Guy
[12] Summers, Rod
[13] Sackners Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry

References:
[01] Janssen, R. (1995). [Interview with Vittore Baroni]. TAM Mail-Interview Project [WWW page]  URL http://www.iuoma.org/
[02] Baroni, V. (1990 - 2000). Call of the iconoclast. Arte Postale !, 82, 2.
[03] Baroni, V. (2001). Arte Postale !, 85.
[04] Bulatov, D. (n.d.). GLUKHOMANIA.RU, An Electronic Museum of Lingua-Acoustic Space [WWW page]. URL http://ncca.smufsa.nu/pr_sonorus.php3
[05] Principi, U. (1996). MAGAM, Mail Art Gallery And Museum [WWW page]. URL http://www.sapienza.it/magam/inglese/home_intro.html

Date last update: 18 November 2002