> descarga / encyclopaedia 2006 / 573 kb / en inglés /
> mail-art & street art documentation centre /

> introducción / 

> proyecto en curso / La investigación en la historia del mail-art (arte correo) y de redes relacionadas con los movimientos artísticos del siglo pasado //

> origine /

> En agosto de 2001 nos dimos cuenta de que algunos artistas de correo se olvidaron por completo / Esto sucedió cuando nuestros pensamientos estaban conectados con Achim Weigelt de Alemania, que murió con 25 años en 1990 / Su espléndida decoración sobre historietas, fueron disfrutados por muchos mail-artistas, sin embargo, muchos años después parece que está olvidado totalmente / Achim Weigelt simboliza a todos los mail-artistas, que están olvidados y que merecen tanta atención como Ray Johnson / Dedicamos este mail-art encyclopaedia a Achim Weigelt y a todos los fallecidos mail-artistas que han contribuido a la red de arte correo hasta el año 2000 //

> fuente de información /

> Desde 1986 - cuando comenzamos nuestras actividades de mail-art - hemos construido un gran archivo de mail-art con una importante colección de información sobre mail-art networking / Además de que buscamos a fondo para obtener más información a través de diversos canales, mucha más información esta guardada y seguimos buscando información directamente con el correo de los artistas del pasado / La investigación cuidadosa de la información lleva tiempo, como tal, la encyclopaedia permanecerá para siempre inacabada, sin fecha límite real //

> Todos los textos están protegidos por copyright //

> preface / by Vittore Baroni / Italy /

It is an hard job, but somebody has to do it! If we do not want this wonderful chain of creativity and cooperation that for the last forty-something years has gone under the name of Mail Art or Eternal Network to burst and disappear in thin air like a beautiful soap bubble, somebody has to do the research, write the unwritten (no) rules, document the ethereal, ungraspable, contradictory history of the postal art network. Even if you are doomed to fail in your attempt at completeness, because the subject is so vast and spread out over the decades, it is important to try and preserve the idealism, the human values, the tons of brilliant and not so brilliant ideas that have circulated (and are still circulating) in this ephemeral alternative art world.

I know how difficult it is, because I have tried many times to put the happy chaos of Mail Art into some kind of order, through thematic issues of my magazine Arte Postale! and through the books I have written or edited (my 1997 introductory guide Arte Postale, John Held Jr.'s Rubber Stamp Art of 1999, Jas Felter's Artistamps of 2000, the anthology of Artist's Postcards I am working on right now, all for Italy's AAA Editions). Other veteran mail artists have done the same, either with researches on specific topics (Geza Perneczky's book about network magazines and publications comes to mind) or with anthologies of essays (Chuck Welch's Eternal Network) or with useful tools for scholars, like the groundbreaking Mail Art Bibliography by John Held Jr. or Ruud Janssen's set of mail interviews (thankfully posted also in his T.A.M. web site).

Notwithstanding the efforts of this handful of insider "historians", the complex galaxy of Mail Art remains a mystery to the general audience, so every new endeavour to document and explain the multifaceted ramifications of the networking tree must be warmly welcomed. Mail Art surely lends itself to an encyclopaedic kind of approach, and it would be of great utility for everyone to have a big cross-referenced volume detailing the more relevant issues, projects and characters active in the medium. Somebody has tried already, there was a few years ago a Spanish web site with a sort of basic Mail Art alphabetic directory (was it from Cesar Reglero of Boek 481? Sorry, I'm getting older and my memory fails me.), but it seemed a hotchpotch affair with not much substance behind it. Compiling an authoritative encyclopaedia requires a brave heart and large shoulders, a passion for hard researches and an almost obsessive attention to details and "correspondences".

From the few completed entries I have been able to read of his new & improved "Mail Art Encyclopaedia", Geert De Decker of Sztuka Fabryka seems to possess both the heart and mind to carry out such an (almost) impossible task. He is doing his homework well, with the seriousness and intellectual curiosity it requires. So I just hope that he will not surrender to the many difficulties he will surely encounter on his path, or to the criticism from other networkers that will undoubtedly confront him along the way. In fact, he needs all the help and support that other mail artists can offer, this is a job the whole postal network will benefit from. In the past few months, many old friends have disappeared (Robin Crozier, Cees Francke, Joseph Huber, Lon Spiegelman, it would be a long and sad list.), their wide and passionate contribution to the Mail Art medium would be totally lost without some form of historical documentation. Let's dedicate our communal efforts to all these friends who have finally "returned to sender".

Vittore Baroni, December 2002