> contents / This is Mail Art. / Pawel Petasz /

Pawel Petasz (25 August 1951) - collage artist, zine publisher, computer art pioneer - was one of the most active and remarkable Eastern European Mail-artists during the Communist period. Pawel never found the need to be with his art activities a dissident against the Communist system and its limitations in freedom. He only had the desire to communicate with other artists all over the world and to break the isolation. Yet, he became a role model for others with his experimental actions in an unpredictable state.

From 1980 till 1990 Pawel had an add-to and return project which was called "This is Mail Art". In this period Pawel did send out about 5000 forms which was a folded piece of bristol paper 23 by 32 centimetres. To close the mailing it was sewed around to close the mailing for censors as the project started in a time when the Polish Martial Law was installed. On the unfolded and numbered piece of paper in the middle of the upper half a large text of title and instruction was printed, requesting to remake it and return it, with the use of an old wringer.

Soon each paper started to turn into a complex collage while outside it started to get covered with many addresses, cancellations and stamps. After a while all forms Pawel did send around disappeared in archives of Mail-artists or maybe even in police archives, so he had to create now forms to start new add-and-return-to chains. When Pawel started the project he originally designed it with computer support in mind, but this was never realised because of lack of adequate scanning hardware that time and financing later. In 1981 the Martial Law was introduced by general Jaruzelski [forced by the Sovjet Union to avoid sending of Warsaw pact troops] which made that communications became restricted and mail started to bare red rubberstamps "censored" or "not censored". In these circumstances the project continued in a reduced to A4 size. The following years along with the liberalisation of the regime, the forms of the project changed again and developed their appearance to celebrate seasons of the year. The project was never definitively closed.