> Decentralized Mail-Art Congress /

Taking place during 1986 the first 'Congress year' was called The Decentralized Mail Art Congress. This major project was conceived by Günther Ruch (Switzerland) and Hans Reudi Fricker (Switzerland). During that calendar year other individual Mail-artists arranged several of the Mail-art meetings.

Ruch had for a long time the idea for a meeting with Mail-artists on one location. He made his first public mention of his concept in the first issue of his magazine Clinch in 1983, with his ad for a fictitious congress. A few years later Fricker joined the idea and both discussed matters about a real congress to be held in 1986. By October 1985 they mailed out invitations and questionnaires describing their idea for a congress in Switzerland. They wrote that "the congress will take place between the first of June and the first of October 1986". Between one hundred sixty to two hundred artists responded with propositions, creating an unprecedented situation, hundreds of Mail-artists together publicly debating and discussing Mail-Art. Ruch and Fricker then decided not to have such a year-long event only in Switzerland, but also in in several other countries. Both organisers were in that time against a centralised network-headquarter, so Ruch proposed for the running space and in the title the word "independent". While Fricker preferred calling it "decentralized", which they finally used. To have congresses in several places was a logical development which was realised thanks to all invited and informed participants, several of whom became congress organisers themselves. Ruch and Fricker realised that if they did not decentralise the congress, few would have the opportunity to participate, due to long travel distances, not much money and also, at that time, to the iron curtain. Together they wrote the final congress-paper announcing the 'Congress year' as well as the preparation of lists, questionnaires, suggestions, congress-leaflets, co-ordination schemes, … the final congresses were ready to start.

Fricker and Ruch viewed the 'Congress year' differently. Fricker was occupied with his 'Tourism' concept and used the congress to present his ideas. He defined 'Tourism' as: the goal of Mail-Art to connect people not only through the postal system but also through personal dialog. For Fricker the face to face meeting - instead of the virtual postal contact - was more important than discussions of setting Mail-Art rules. Another aspect, besides direct personal meetings, was the use of actual physical places. Mail-Art has built virtual spaces and Fricker's interest was also in real spaces. 'Tourism' as an enlargement of the "space" aspect through networking.

"wherever two or more mail artists meet, there a congress will take place." Fricker, Hans Reudi

Ruch preferred also "personal" contacts with networkers, especially one-to-one meetings, to establish new forms of collaboration for direct artistic interventions. He organised the 1986 congress for the purpose of giving networkers a forum and the opportunity to discuss their own problems of information, autonomy, cooperation, art context, lack of time problems, correspondence-selections, history interpretations, and financial difficulties in relation to Mail-Art.

"Network-problems in the eighties came through contrary views about mail- communication. For some people an exchange had only to do with a social (political) character in which the "artistical" point was secondary (e.g. : "everybody is an artist"). For some other people an exchange had only to do with a artistical (cultural) character in which the "social" point was secondary (e.g. : "every artwork implicates a social context")." Janssen, R. (1995). [Interview with Günther Ruch]. TAM Mail-Interview Project [WWW page]. URL http://www.iuoma.org/ 

By the beginning of 1986 Ruch's and Fricker's differences had grown so great that collaborating became impossible. Their discord started earlier when Fricker, who posted the issue of Clinch with the call for the event, stamped on the pages with the call and also on the envelope "After Dadaism, Fluxism, Mailism, comes Tourism". Ruch was not happy with Fricker's statement. For him these congresses were meetings to discuss topical issues of Mail-Art, which has nothing to do with any kind of tourism. He reacted with the statement "Tourism in Mail Art remains tourism and not Mail Art". The misunderstandings and differences between them were suddenly so great that Ruch no longer wanted Fricker's contribution and continued on alone to co-ordinate the congress-sessions. He collected extracts of sessions and material from the several congresses in a one-hundred fifty page congress book-catalogue with six hundred names and printed in 1987. Later on, when invited to participate, he used the same materials for the catalogue of the exhibition, "De Media" in Eeklo (Belgium), January to February 1987.

From the beginning Ruch's publication, Clinch, was the communication channel for the whole 'Congress year'. Following the first announcements, the address list of one hundred sixty Mail-artists who responded on the first invitation, till the extracts from congress realisations. Several wrote statements and articles about the congress sessions, artists' conclusions, newspaper articles or published their own congress publications. A short historical interpretation about the congress idea was written by Géza Perneczky in his book, The Magazine Network.

The 'Congress year' became an unlimited series of meetings, freely organised by various Mail-Art networkers in different parts of the world, during one year. More than eighty five congress-sessions were held in twenty five countries with almost five hundred people involved. Through the decentralisation of the congress the organisers could propose their own themes for discussion. Networkers from South America, Australia, Europe or from behind the iron curtain had different problems and concerns about which they wanted to talk. Some networkers participated in three or more congresses during that year and sessions took place on ships, on the top of mountains, in apartments, restaurants, museums, etc. …

Due to the 1986 success, six years later Hans Reudi Fricker and Peter W. Kaufmann (Switzerland) organised the 'Decentralized Network Congress', followed by the 'Incongruous Meetings' by Vittore Baroni (Italy) in 1998.

Related Topics:
[01] Congress
[02] Ruch, Günther
[03] Fricker, Hans Reudi
[04] Meeting
[05] Clinch
[06] Independent
[07] Money
[08] Leaflet
[09] Tourism
[10] Postal system
[11] Social
[12] Political
[13] Artistical
[14] Cultural
[15] Dada
[16] Fluxus
[17] Catalogue
[18] De Media
[19] Address list
[20] Newspaper
[21] Publication
[22] Perneczky, Géza
[23] Kaufmann, Peter W.
[24] Decentralized Network Congress
[25] Incongruous Meetings
[26] Baroni, Vittore

References:
[01] (H. R. Fricker, personal interview, September, 2003)
[01] (G. Ruch, personal interview, November, 2003)
[02] (V. Baroni, personal interview, September, 2003)
[03] Held, John Jr. (1995). Key to the Collection: Correspondence, 1976-1995 [WWW page]. URL http://www.geocities.com/johnheldjr/ 
[04] John Held Jr. (n.d.). The Open World of Dobrica Kamperelic, John Held, Jr., Part II [WWW page]. URL http://www.geocities.com/johnheldjr/ 
[06] Janssen, R. (1995). [Interview with Günther Ruch]. TAM Mail-Interview Project [WWW page]. URL http://www.iuoma.org/ 
[07] Ruch, G. (1987). MA-Congress 86. Zwitserland: Out-Press.
[08] Perneczky, G. (1993). The Magazine Network: The trends of alternative art in the light of their periodicals 1968-1988. (pp. 132-133). Köln, Germany: Soft Geometry.

Date last update: 19 February 2004