anna boschi-mail Art 50 2012 - Boek 861

The generations of mail-art (6 parts)
To start with, of course there is also the zero generation. Artists that already used the mail system for communication, art
& play (Marcel Duchamp, Van Gogh maybe?) where individual artists were in contact with other artists through the mail
in a creative way on a one-to-one basis. It looks like Mail-Art, but the term for it wasn’t thought out yet. A basic discussion
in the network; the start of the postal system is or isn’t the basis for Mail-Art?
In a previous published brochure I wrote only the first 5 generations were mentioned….. I rewrote that initial brochure and
I gave a short overview and explain what I think is the new 6th generation that is joining the network now. To which
GENERATION of Mail-Artists do you belong? If by reading this text you have reached to a conclusion, just let me know! I
am always curious to reaction on this.
FIRST GENERATION
The first generation; Ray Johnson who started in the NYCS (New York Correspondance School) with a selective group he
choose to write to and asked them to play the game with him. Also the phone was integrated in that play. The artifacts
(letters, collages, etc…) are being exhibited worldwide the last years because Ray is connected to the roots of Pop-Art. A
closed network that had interactions with Ray as the central figure. The later generations also communicated with Ray
Johnson. For example, I am a mail-artists from that 3 rd generation, and in the mail-interview project which I did from 1994
till 2000 I also interview by mail where he did answer 3 questions just the year before his suicide-performance took place.
The image bside this text comes from a good source:
SECOND GENERATION
The second generation in the 60's - 70's when FLUXUS joined up and a selective group experimented with the mail system.
Ken Friedman did his Omaha Flow Systems show in which all contributions were exhibited. A central idea that anybody
could participate who knew and received the invitation. It is called a conceptual art exhibition. Mal-Art has to do with the
concept that art is sent from maker direct to the exhibition. Besides the correspondance between two artists, there is now
a way to exhibit all sending’s from a group (in a public place). This principle still lives till today in 2012.
THIRD GENERATION
The third generation where mail art rapidly grew in 70's - 80's because of the exhibitions and publications within the mail
art network that spread the news to newcomers. The address lists of the projects opened the doors to others. Some long
time projects like TAM-Rubberstamp Archive (Ruud Janssen) and Brain Cell (Ryosuke Cohen) started here and are still alive
today (2012). This generation undertook thousands of mail-art projects and also the major mail-art collections started to
grow from this time on. Massive production as an underground network but also exhibition is larger public places when
possible.
FOURTH GENERATION
The fourth generation, after the first DNC (Decentralized Networker Congress) in 1986 organized by H.R. Fricker and Günther
Ruch from Switzerland, where the mail art population grew into a very large group. Every networker only knows his selective
group with whom he/she is in contact. An enormous wealth of projects and publications are made in the end of the 80's
and the beginning of the 90's. Also Tourism (H.R. Fricker) became a trend, and mail-artists travelled to meet each other. The
end of the 80's and the beginning 90's was also the gradual beginning of the next generation. After the personal contacts
the times changed and the first digital contacts were made in the…….
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