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I never changed my mind : Mail-art is one of the most important "artistic" movement in this century. May be because it is not only an artistic movement but a behavior. When men around the world exchange, play, make art freely and do that with no spirit of competition the world began to be better. I think that if Mail-art cannot change the world, it express a common need to change it into a real human world. For the first time in human history, people who never met are exchanging feelings, ideas, gifts through mail, fax, and all kind of media. Even if we are not able to speak to each other - the great number of languages does not permit it - we have a common way to communicate through images, music, performances and so on.. For more than thirty years I have been practicing mail-art, and every time I met one of the guy with which I exchanged mail, it was like if I met an old friend. We immediately understood each other, we were speaking the same language et we felt really members of the same family. "Mail-artists" are not artists in a restricted sense, they are people like everybody, teachers, postmen, truck drivers, engineers, painters, but they are "mail-artists" , and money is not the only thing they are thinking of. They are human beings, they like life, peace, art, poetry, and they want to exchange with other human beings. Mail-art must keep alive the ideals of his creation : free exchange, no competition, no judgment. For the future of mankind, ęsthetic is less important than communication. Daniel Daligand

Copyright © Daniel Daligand - daligand@worldnet.fr