Mail Art Periodicals
Periodicals, zines, and artists’ books traveled widely throughout the mail art network given the ease with which artists could produce and circulate them through the post. This format also lent itself well to the collaborative ethos that underpinned mail art.
“Assemblings”--publications where the editors would invite remote collaborators to send all forms of physical and printed miscellaneous materials, and then re-circulate them through the mail art network—were particularly well suited for mail artists. Each copy of an assembling could contain unique insertions or variations on the same contribution, thus blurring the art world’s conventional distinction between original and reproduction. Ulises Carrión, as a writer, artist, editor, and networker, recognized in assemblings a publication that would allow him to gather and distribute a substantial amount of disparate contributions.
Stampa Newspaper, 1980
Ulises Carrión, editor
Newspaper
In 1980 Carrión sent an invitation through the mail art network requesting collaborators for an artists’ rubber stamp project. Carrión’s intention was for contributors to send a design for a rubber stamp which would be fabricated by him and printed into a broadsheet-style publication. The project ran into logistical complications and was never fully realized.
Stampa Newspaper poster / invitation, 1980
Ulises Carrión, editor
Ephemera
Courtesy of Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA)
On loan from Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA)
Vandangos, 1973-80
Raúl Marroquín (1948-), editor
Magazine
In 1973, Colombian artist Raúl Marroquín published Vandangos, a mail art zine printed in newsprint paper that the artist envisioned as a kind of announcement board for the In-Out Center. Marroquín published several issues of Vandangos, oftentimes slightly changing its name, to Fun-dangos, for instance, or Fandangos.
Libellus, 1980-81
Guy Schraenen (1941-2018), editor
Magazine
English artist Guy Schraenen published twelve issues of Libellus, a monthly periodical that documented the activity of the mail art network by publishing reproductions of mail artworks, theoretical texts, and circulating invitations for mail art projects. Carrión’s work was featured in the magazine on several occasions. Collaboration through the mail art network allowed periodicals such as Libellus to gather, publish, and recirculate the work of artists living in different parts of the world and who oftentimes never met in person.
Hexagono ‘71, CF / DF, 1971-75
Edgardo Antonio Vigo (1928-1997), editor
Magazine
Hexágono ’71 was a magazine assembled and disseminated by Argentine artist and frequent Carrión collaborator Edgardo Antonio Vigo. It ran for 13 issues between 1971 and 1975 and appeared every three months. Its name is a reference to the year of its inception and to the courthouse where Vigo worked as a clerk, which ostensibly had six walls. Among the varied and recurring contributors, we find some of the most recognized Latin American artists of the period. The magazine emerged and referenced the increasingly unstable and violent political landscape in Argentina and Latin America more broadly.
Schmuck no. 5, 1974-1975
Felipe Ehrenberg and David Mayor, editors
Magazine
Schmuck was the Beau Geste Press’ take on the assembling magazine, showcasing its visually expressive approach to printing and duplication processes. The magazine was a container for all sorts of artworks, from found objects to poetry chapbooks, postcards and prints. Each issue of Schmuck typically highlighted artists from one country, but this fifth issue, “General Schmuck,” brought together contributors from around the world.
