(My mail art activities
from 1970. to 1987.)
I have been dealing with mail-art since about
1970. when I was mostly engaged in poetical-visual
research and was in permanent contact with a
number of artists and poets from all over the
world.
One of the first mail-art major actions was
registered in the journal Signal No. 2/3 in
the following way: "Miroljub Todorovic:
SIGNALIST MANIFESTATION 1), 20.3.1971, Belgrade.(1)
New type of communication. Basic element of
communication is the punched (used) card for
an IBM computer. Name of the sender, date and
place of the information source, its name and
indication are typed on the blank back of the
computer card by a typewriter. Thus prepared
card is put in an envelope and sent to the consumer
by post.
"Names of 63 artists, galleries and publishers
from abroad are cited as receivers of the first
signalist manifestation. Among others, A. de
Campos, C.Padin, M.Perfetti, J.Valoch, J.Blaine,
J.Gerz, Sarenco, E.Miccini, E.Jandl, P.Garnier,
M.Bense, S.J.Schnidt, B.Cobbing, D.Higgins,
Ben Vautier, Art Intermedia, etc. have received
such a communication computer card.(2)
The card was sent to thirty Yugoslav poets,
critics and scholars: Dušan Matic, Marko Ristic,
Oskar Davico, Petar Dzadzic, Eli Finci, Radomir
Konstantinovic, Branimir Donat, Sveta Lukic,
Novica Petkovic, Tomaz Brejc, Boza Bek, Taras
Kermauner, Zelimir Košcevic, Veselin Ilic etc.
I did not note responses to these letters, neither
can I remember any of them at this moment, although
I am certain there have been some.
I repeated similar mail-art actions the same
year and later. Circle of potential consumers
changed, broadened or narrowed. Used punched
cards of different colors and of standard dimensions
were applied all the time. Interventions on
the cards were most frequently made by a marker.
Punched positions were encircled or some words
or messages written, several times the word
SIGNALISM appeared, or later on the message:
THINK ABOUT SIGNALISM.
I remember a series of cards on which I pasted
small rectangular photographs of teeth, which
I had obtained quite an amount of from the dental
clinic in Ranke street. Computer cards with
coloured stickers bearing pictures of animals,
from prehistoric dinosaurs, through fishes,
birds, mammals, all the way to our direct ancestor
- the anthropoid monkey were also interesting.
I started working on an artist book at the beginning
of 1972. (3) This action and the book itself
were described in the last volume (8/9) of the
review Signal as follows:"
Miroljub Todorovic: FORTRAN (signalist book),
Belgrade, February 1972. Signalist book FORTRAN
is made of six, white used (punched) computer
cards in 47 copies. Already cited data (name
of the author, title of the book and the date
of publishing) are on the first card. The next
four cards are filled with marker interventions.
Interventions are identical. Stamp of Signal
is on the back of the last page with the signature
of the author, ordinal number of the book and
the total number of copies produced. The signalist
book FORTRAN was sent to the following artists,
artistic archives, galleries and editorial boards:
Clemente Padin, Hans Clavin, Edgardo Antonio
Vigo, Jiri Valoch, Julien Blaine, Jochen Gerz,
Sarenco, Galleria Sincron, David Briers, G.J.
de Rook, Michael Gibbs, N.Zurbrugg, Bob Cobbing,
"Art Media", Edition Kimmel, Ben Vautier,
J.Van der Wolk, Janos Urban, Klaus Groh, Guillermo
Deisler, Stedelijk Museum, Hans Werner Kalkmann,
"Ganglia", Archille Bonito Oliva,
"Grab Grass", Nachl Nucha, Alvaro
de Sa, Archiv Sohm, Bukowski, Marc Poinsot,
Horst Trees, "Pfirsich", "Avalanche",
Joseph Kosuth, Carl Andre, Paul Berry, Josepf
Beuys, Jan Dibbets, Allain Kirili, Richard Long,
Sol Lewitt, Peter Kenedy, Janez Kocijancic,
Franci Zagoricnik, Boda Markovic and Dobrivoje
Jeftic."
A number of artists reacted to the book.(4)
I empasise post cards sent by Richard Long on
April 27. 1972 from Bristol and Joseph Beuys
who sent his post card Fluxus Zone West: Joseph
Beuys BRD, Fluxus Zone West: Ken Friedmann USA,
Edition Hundrtmark, Berlin, with the well-known
stamp Fluxus Zone West and the following text:
"Dear Todorovic,
Many thanks for your small signalist book
Y.S. Joseph Beuys".
Janez Kocijancic, poet from Novi Sad, reacted
by reproducing a copy of FORTRAN (No.24/47)
as a "Special Edition" in his column
"U-R" in INDEX, journal of students
from Vojvodina, No. 246, March 23. 1972. A short
note with bibliography data was published beneath
the reproduced pages of this book.
Kocijancic gives the following information in
the same column "U-R" of the next
volume of INDEX:
"Not long ago, the newest (signalist) book
FORTRAN (name of one of the computer languages)
by Miroljub Todorovic appeared in Belgrade.
Miroljub produced 47 copies of the book, and
then distributed them to his 47 friends throughout
the world. Every copy consists of six used computer
cards with poets marker interventions. In the
previous edition of "U-R" you had
the opportunity to see one of the unique copies,
reproduced in a number of copies equivalent
to the circulation of "Index".
"In the same year 1972, I produced my first
stamp with the same message which I used to
write: THINK ABOUT SIGNALISM.(5) Apart from
this message which I impressed by my own stamp
on my communication post cards and letters,
along with other (official) stamps of the review
SIGNAL, Signalist Documentation Centre, Signalist
Artists’ Society, I used it for creating different
visual forms, in which its basic message lost
or gained in intensity.(6) Two works created
in those rather exciting stamp games appeared
later in the proceedings STAMP ART,(7) edited
by a Dutch poet and investigator, G.J. de Rook
in Amsterdam.
In March 1972, a text named "Cosmic hieroglyphs"
about the flight of American space ship "Pioneer
10" whose mission was to investigate the
Asteroid Layer and the planet Jupiter, was published
in newspaper Politika. According to predictions
"Pioneer 10" was supposed to pass
by Jupiter in December 1973. and emit new data
about this giant mysterious planet to scientists.
After the emission, which, as we know, was successfully
completed, the space ship started its flight
deep into the Universe leaving the Solar system
behind. "Pioneer 10" carried the first
human interstellar message for beings from other
worlds. This coded "cosmic letter"
was engraved on a gold coated aluminum plate,
which, as scientists believed, would endure
a flight lasting a hundred million terrestrial
years or interstellar distance of 3000 light
years.
I considered the text in Politika which included
a drawing of the coded "cosmic letter"
ideal for further continuation of my personal
(mail-art) actions, especially for its coincidence
with my earlier interests within the framework
of signalism (scientism, natural sciences, planetary
art, cosmology). I copied it a few times by
a photocopier and printed it by offset technique
(lithography) on A4 format paper. This text
soon replaced computer cards in my communication
within international communication network which
I joined. A photocopy of the text was sent to
different artists, galleries and archives, for
numerous exhibitions, sometimes without any
intervention and most frequently with interventions.(8)
Interventions in fact consisted of encircling
certain words in the text, those which seemed
to me to be key words, such as: space ship,
star, hieroglyphs, Jupiter, first, hydrogen,
Earth, origin, generator, message, thus, Sun,
infinity, marked, cells, signal, decoding, uncertain,
beings, etc. I connected frequently thus encircled
words by straight lines with the lifted hand
of the man whose picture was on the coded letter.
A radial, verbal-visual constellation was created,
rather impressive for me, full of meanings,
which was somewhat different in every achievement
because different words were encircled and by
different ways (lines) assembled in the focus
of the man's hand.
A series of these texts with interventions,
which besides the existing title Cosmic hieroglyphs
got another indication Signalist Project, was
the framework of my first mail art exhibition
Signalist Research 1 (communication - eye) in
the gallery of the Students Centre In Belgrade
from February 26 to March 9 1973.(10) Apart
from this project, photocopies of letters, envelopes
and other selected mail material which I received
in the period from 1970 to 1973 were exhibited
along with photocopies of flight itineraries
of German airlines company Lufthansa. The whole
project, including a medical description of
the eye as one of the basic communication organs,
I named “Total Communication”. On the occasion
of the exhibition, in this sense I also wrote
a manifesto which was published in the catalogue
titled COMMUNICATION-ENTITY-THOUGHT.
According to the attitudes expressed in the
manifesto: ”Communication is at the very basis
of the entity. It is an element and the fact
of its existence. A positive measure of its
pace and growth from primary, rudimental to
the powerful planetary consciousness. I communicate,
thus I exist, therefore I create. The essence
of communication is ambiguous in the deepest
sense of the word. It is social-historical and
exact, and artistic and subjective in its most
intimate, most human aspect. Its means are the
levels of civilization. Communication is the
basis and nourishment of human discoveries.”(11)
This Manifesto shows the significance I attribute
to communication (i.e. to mail-art as art, which
directly emerges from certain communication
models), since I consider it to be the basis
of almost all research during the past twenty
years in painting and even literature.I printed
a series of eight postcards in the beginning
of 1973. Almost all of them contain works from
broadly taken field of signalist research. Those
are: Anagrams 1968 (visual poetry), Lunometre
1969/70 (verbal-visual poem), Alphabet 1969/70
(visual poem), Gordian Knot 1971 (gesture poem),
and Signalist Manifestation 1971 (gesture poetry).
Cosmic Hieroglyphs were reproduced with the
following project interventions on the card:
encircled words connected with the man’s hand
by straight lines are given as photonegatives,
so that the text, coded letter, drawing of a
man and a woman, and the interventions are shown
on black “cosmic” background, which thus underlines
the character of this cosmic informative communication
operation. Mail-art work Communication made
by collage technique and photocopying international
mail coupons was published in 1972. The sign
“Signal”, i.e. the emblem of Signalism with
a short information about the Signalist Documentation
Centre is printed on the last (eighth) card.
The series appeared in about 5000 copies (cards).(12)
In the beginning, the post cards were sent most
frequently together with the previous material
of the Signalist Project: Cosmic hieroglyphs
, and they were in this way exhibited on exhibitions
and reproduced in proceedings, catalogues and
anthologies of conceptual art, visual poetry
and mail-art as: LA ESCRITURA EN LIBERTAD, by
Ferdinand Millan and Jesus Garcia Sanchez, POST
DOCUMENTS(13) by Juna Muzukami etc.
In the course of the following years, at certain
time intervals, I sent series of my postcards
to artists, writers, scholars and public persons
in our country and abroad. The stamp with the
message THINK ABOUT SIGNALISM was most frequently
stamped on each card. Some of the sent cards
returned, mostly for the wrong or changed address
of the receiver. The post regularly stamped
its official stamp on the returned mail. This
gave me the idea for a mail-art action named
Unsuccessful Communication, which I went into
much later.
Interest for mail-art suddenly increased in
the world about 1976/77. Visual poetry slowly
disappeared. Even the last significant journals
specialized in this branch were disappearing.
Conceptual art drowned into statistical documentation
of its own material and ideas, in bizarre language
tautology. Mail-art appeared suddenly as a “fresh
and lively framework for certain artists”, a
new motive power which started gathering all
the energy of restless, investigative and unconventional
spirit.
In the period from 1971 to 1978(14) , based
on mail-art and artistic communication on the
whole, I established closest co-operation with
German artist Klaus Groh and his I.A.C. (International
Artist’s Corporation), who had for several years
already published INFO (Information Bulletin)
with most significant contemporary information,
connecting in this way a great number of artists
from many countries.
Groh published my second artists book (bookwork)
within his well known edition Art Booklets .
This was a small book, format 7.5/10.5 cm, in
fact a A4 format paper folded eight times so
that it has 16 pages with the “covers”. Klaus
Groh published more than fifty such booklets
by visual poets, mail-artists, conceptualists
and other researchers in the wide space of art.(15)
Mine, entitled APPROACHES appeared under number
25, in 1973.
Fourteen scientific symbols which are applied
in physics and mathematics were written on the
pages of APPROACHES with a marker. The book
begins with the symbol of approximation (flow)
and finishes with the symbol of infinity.
Reviewing the whole edition of Art Booklets
in London journal Art and Artist’s the critic
David Zack(16) noted in September 1974:
“Miroljub Todorovic’s Approaches is one of several
masterpieces in the I.A.C. series. It signals
artists, which is to say individuals, approaching
their goal, points out pitfalls, and concludes
Entropy equals infinity.”
Besides postcards, in 1973 I published two more
mail-art posters with the same title Communication
in offset technique.(17) On one of them are
maps of central parts of the following cities
with main roads: Vienna, Sofia, Budapest, Athens,
Bucharest and Rome, while on the second there
is again the American space ship “Pioneer 10”
in the foreground. But, besides the drawing
of the “Pioneer” and the “cosmic letter” there
is a visual representation of the whole itinerary
of the aircraft from the Earth through the Solar
System near Jupiter and Saturn towards outer
planets and cosmic infinity.
Numerous photocopies of official post stamps
published previously in our newspapers with
high circulation on the occasion of significant
philatelist editions, or representations of
the post or postal system should certainly be
added to the mentioned works. For example: “Yugoslavia
1972”, stamps with cosmic motives in the world,
and similar. I have also copied and distributed
one page of the American journal Playboy with
posters reduced to the size of a stamp bearing
the advertising text “Mail coupon today”. On
all of these photocopies, besides the name and
address, I added only the words: Communication
or mail-Art.
I started producing my own stamps towards the
end of 1978. Up to now few series with different
motives were produced: parts of maps, postal
coupons, countenance of the author, circling
of a satellite or flight of a rocket around
the Earth, surface of the Moon, a clipping of
the “cosmic letter” (few variations), series
of pictures of poets, scientists, statesmen
and cosmonauts, radiation, picture of electron
movement in the atom, picture of the globe with
continents, etc. Most frequent inscriptions
and messages on the stamps were: Signalist Post,
Signal, Communication, Think about Signalism,
Signalist Poetry, The Moon Sign, Trip to Starland,
Communication, Signal Art, Mail-Art, Think about
Mail-Art, etc. Most of these stamps were published
in a few volumes of the French journal DOC/K/S.(18)
I producing whole series of postcards out of
smaller pieces of cardboard, dimensions were
10.5/15 cm, as required by postal rules. These
cards were unique (one copy of each) with different
names and messages such as: THINK ABOUT SIGNALISM,
READY MADE POETRY, with collages on both sides
except for the space for the address of the
receiver.(19) I put official and my own stamps
on these post cards and sent them by mail. Some
of them are mentioned by Polish poet and critic
Julian Kornhauzer in his PhD thesis SIGNALISM-PROGRAM
OF SERBIAN EXPERIMENTAL POETRY, chapter Stylistic
Approach to Signalist Poetry (“... 17 post cards
the author of which is Miroljub Todorovic, each
with a title of the work, some with stamps given
by the author, all addressed to me...”).(20)
In February 1979, I finally achieved previously
conceived mail-art action “Unsuccessful Communication”.
I sent my post cards (series printed in 1973)
with the basic message THINK ABOUT SIGNALISM
to a few domestic poets, writers and critics
dead long ago, to two leaders from the time
of the First and the Second Serbian Uprising,
and two living outstanding writers. The cards
were mailed as registered mail, some of them
as urgent. The addresses were arbitrary, of
course, but there was a “system” in it, too.
A registered post card was sent to Djura Jaksic
with the address Skadarska number 47. Besides
two ordinary stamps another appropriate one
was sealed with a reproduction of his famous
painting. This stamp,(21) at least twice as
big as the ordinary ones, with nominal value
of 1.20 para did not have any title, but Djura
Jaksic was printed in its upper right corner
in clear, large gold letters. The card was mailed
(according to a rather visible stamp) on February
10, 1979. It was returned to me after two days
(February 12) with the postal stamp -inconnu
. The postman even wrote with a ball pen, above
the stamp: “In Skadarska 47 unknown”, put the
date 12. II. 79 and signed it.
A registered card was also sent to the poet
Vojislav Ilic on 9.2.1979 from Belgrade Post
office 6, to the address Makedonska street number
30. The next day, a postman noted on the upper
part of the card: ”10.II 79 unknown, mark with
whom he lives” (assuming probably that a subtenant
was involved), and signed. A stamp inconnu (underlined)
was put below everything and signed. The card
was returned to me on February 13 by morning
mail.
An urgent, registered post card with a message
“think about Signalism” was sent to Dr Milan
Skerlic addressed to Milana Rakica street number
17 on 10.II 1979. Since he could not find him,
the postman stated in the upper left corner
of the card: ”Delivery attempted, according
to statements of tenants, unknown - 11.2.79
at 11.10 h” (signature).
A card for Bora Stankovic was addressed to Knez
Mihajlova street 14. An appropriate stamp was
sealed, with the picture of the writer and label
Bora Stankovic 1876-1976 . Above it was written
in Cyrillic alphabet “Centenary of Birth”. A
stamp produced in the mean time “SIGNALISM 1959-1979
think about signalism” to mark the anniversary,
was stamped only on the postcard mailed to this
writer. The card returned on February 12 with
the already customary mark: unknown.
A post card with a reproduced part of a signalist
poem called Alphabet and the message THINK ABOUT
SIGNALISM, was mailed to Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj
in Laza Kostic Street number 4 in Novi Sad.
It was returned a couple of days later with
a big stamp, which occupied more than half of
the available space left for writing. The stamp
differed from those on previous cards, because
it comprised a variety of reasons for which
mail could not be delivered. It was not only
stated that the receiver is unknown-inconnu.
First of all, it was written return - retour
in the upper part of the stamp in somewhat bigger
letters. Beneath this, the following words were
written in two columns - left in Serbian and
right in French: unknown, moved, does not receive,
on a trip, does nor exist, deceased... I could
not make out the last two words because of illegible
printing. A small square is placed between the
Serbian and French words for the postman to
encircle or mark in some other way, showing
thus the reason which prevented him to deliver
the mail. It is interesting that on this card
the postman marked the square related to moved-demenage
and signed over it.
A post card with a reproduction of gesture poem
Gordian Knot was sent to Laza Kostic, the founder
of modernism in our poetry. The address on the
card was Jovana Jovanovica Zmaja street, number
7, also in Novi Sad. The number of registered
delivery on it was 768. On February the twelfth
the card was returned to me with the stamp differing
from the one on the postcard sent to Zmaj. The
stamp was smaller, the letters quite smeared,
difficult to read. There were no more words
in French, (on the other hand, Laza knew French,
he even wrote his secret diary of dreams and
love cravings for Lenka Dundjerski, dead for
some time already, in this language). Contents
of the stamp: upper part in bigger letters:
RETURN, beneath this in two series: does not
exist, unknown, on a trip. Second series: deceased,
left... I could not decipher the third word.
There were two more statements beneath everything:
Incomplete address and Does not exist any more.
The postman marked the square referring to unknown
and signed, probably as required by rules.
A card was mailed to Milos Obrenovic with the
address Karadjordjeva street number 6, and another
one to Karadjordje Petrovic with the address
Miloseva street number 32, both streets in Belgrade.
I unintentionally wrote the wrong name of the
street in the second case. Instead of the official
name of the street Kneza Milosa, I put Miloseva
( name Milosa Velikog is in everyday use as
well), possibly led by the street which got
its name for Karadjordje without stating his
title - “Leader”?. The card was mailed as urgent
and registered. At 32 Kneza Milosa street, the
postman established that Karadjordje Petrovic
was unknown on 11.II 79. The same day another
postman tried to deliver the post card to Karadjordje
at 32 Miloseva street. His statement was: “Delivery
attempted, does not refer to Miloseva”, signature.
Signalist post cards could be delivered neither
to: Vladislav Petkovic Dis at 36 Baba Visnjina,
Milorad Sapcanin at 3, Aberdareva street nor
to Sima Milutinovic Sarajlija at 28 Njegoseva
street, all in Belgrade.A registered card was
sent to Augustin Ujevic at 87 Ilica 87 in Zagreb,
returned with a stamp similar to the one on
the card mailed to Laza Kostic. The postman
marked the square beside the word unknown by
a green ball pen and additionally underlined
the word itself. Since the stamp on the card
for Tin is clearer than on the card sent to
Laza, I could now read easily (decipher) the
third reason (in the second series) for not
having the mail delivered. It said: DID NOT
SEARCH.(21)
After “Unsuccessful Communication”, some time
in spring 1979, I came to the idea to offer
a selection of mail-art, which would include
theoretical texts beside works, to one of our
journals (Delo and Koraci had priority). This
idea was accepted by Muharem Pervic editor-in-chief
of Delo , so that I soon set out to do it. By
mid May I had already made an invitation letter
in English, printed and sent 300 copies. In
this letter framed by my artistic stamps, I
demanded artists to send me their works concerned
with mail-art: catalogues, books, bibliographies,
as well as theoretical texts. I emphasized that
I was working on a voluminous anthology of mail-art
which would appear in journal Delo. I mentioned
at the end that the received material would
be presented at the exhibition titled THINK
ABOUT MAIL ART. (I counted here on the Happy
Gallery at the Students Cultural Centre).
By the end of May already, first packages for
the anthology began to arrive. Among those first
sparrows were Pawel Petasz, from Poland, a known
mail-artist, founder of the Commonpress international
mail-art journal and Guillermo Deisler from
Chile now living in exile in Bulgaria. Soon
afterwards, Klaus Groh, Sarenco, Daniel Daligard,
Michelle Perfetti, Eugenio Miccini, Jacque Lepage,
Ulises Carrion, G.A. Cavellini and others wrote
to me.
During the entire summer an almost unbelievable
amount of avant-garde journals, letters, post
cards, original works of variable forms and
sizes, photos, artists books, stamps and similar
material arrived. Among others, the following
artists wrote to me and sent their works: Romano
Peli, Adriano Spatola, Timm Ulrich, E.F. Higgins,
Dick Higgins, Endre Tot, Ray Johnson, Toshiro
Saito, Carl Andre, Julien Blaine, Gino Gini,
Lon Spegeman, Lamberto Pignotti, Ben Vautier
(who sent plenty of catalogues and material
of the group Fluxus, apart from his works),
Vittore Baroni, Clemente Padin, S.J. Schmidt,
Anna Banana. American Ken Friedmann, along with
his works sent a huge package of catalogues,
books, manifestos, photocopies of newspaper
articles and reviews, copied material from which
a whole study about American after war avant-garde,
fluxus and conceptual art could have been made.
The invitation letter titled “Think about Mail-art”
was published in extenso in one of the summer
volumes of the Canadian artistic journal Parallelograme,
in the column “Classified Abroad”. The invitation
was also published in the American journal Art
monthly and in some English art magazines as
well. I have learned about this from the letters
of some authors, who refer to these magazines,
and some of them, like for example Mike Dyar
from San Francisco, who, along with his works,
sent a clipping from a newspaper (journal) in
which he read about my invitation for the anthology
and exhibition without mentioning the name of
the newspaper (journal) in question.
All that voluminous material had to be arranged
and a selection made. Selection had to be rigorous,
because it turned out that this time I had only
eight to nine sheets (16 pages each) at my disposal
instead of over 200 pages which I had in Delo
number 3, March 1975, when I published the Anthology
of Concrete, Visual and Signalist poetry. This
significantly changed and deranged my original
vision of this project.
Anthology of mail-art was delivered to the editorial
board of the journal about the beginning of
January 1980. Meanwhile, the idea to exhibit
the received material in the Happy Gallery of
the Students’ Cultural Centre within the framework
of the planned exhibition THINK ABOUT MAIL-ART
failed to develop. Delo was quite late, and
I thought that the selection would appear in
its December volume (previously agreed on November
volume was already in print). But, as it often
happens, there was a little delay and postponing
and the anthology was finally published in the
February 1980 volume of Delo.(22)
Publishing of this volume has contributed quite
a lot to bring mail-art, as a new and challenging
artistic field, closer to our artists who, owing
to works and numerous theoretical contributions,
could comprehend the significance, seriousness
and breadth of mail-art which successfully avoids
all the possible barriers of language, nationalism,
ideology. Direct result of the appearance of
the anthology was an increased interest in mail-art,
the fact that a few of our artists joined the
international communication network, starting
new actions, exhibitions, mail journals, bulletins,
etc.(23)
Publishing of my new bookwork Signal Art was
the next project, which marked the beginning
of my continuous mail-art activity. This booklet
appeared in November 1980 as a signalist edition
in 77 copies and it is in line with my previous
artists book. Although mostly mail-art works
are reproduced in it, the book was made by a
printing, silk-screen technique which greatly
corrupted the original and on the other hand,
under a new graphic tension, acquired certain
properties of the original, i.e. its “originality
and uniqueness”.(24)
Besides pages printed by silk-screen technique
Signal Art included one photocopy sealed on
the next to the last cover page. In fact, the
text What is mail-art - mail-poetry? , published
in my column “Information” in the newspaper
Knjizevna rec in 1979, was photocopied here.
Prints of the stamp THINK ABOUT SIGNALISM and
THINK ABOUT MAIL-ART are found on a certain
number of copies.
It is interesting that this book was a subject
of polemics which I had with young poet Branko
Cegec from Zagreb. Being insufficiently informed,
having a rather amateur view of mail-art and
after-war avant-garde in general, this poet
poured malice on Signal Art in journal Oko.(25)
There was nothing left for me to do but oppose
sharply this ignorance united with malice and
transparent conceit under the mask of avant-garde
and so-called radicalism.(26)
My one-man exhibition titled MAIL-ART took place
in Happy New Art gallery of SKC in Belgrade
From May 21 to 31 1981. A small exhibition area
caused rather strict selection of works. Central
place was taken by the “Unsuccessful Communication”,
which, in fact attracted greatest attention
of the audience and caused disputes and comments.
A voluminous catalogue was published on the
occasion of the exhibition. Slavko Timotijevic,
among other, paid special attention to the “Unsuccessful
Communication”, in the introductory text titled
Miroljub Todorovic - Mail-art.(27) Apart from
this, the following texts were published: a
text Authentic Protagonist of Yugoslav Avant-garde
by Michaele Perfetti, my two texts about mail-art,
detailed bibliography and quite a number of
mail-art works with an emphasis on works from
the “Unsuccessful Communication”. Postcards
sent to prominent poets and figures from the
past,Vojislav Ilic, Djura Jaksic, Jovan Skerlic,
Bora Stankovic, Karadjordje Petrovic, Milos
Obrenovic, Laza Kostic, Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj,
Vladislav Petkovic Dis and Augustin Ujevic were
reproduced (as photocopies).
Along with the catalogue, the Gallery published
a special invitation card printed in silk-screen
technique with a reproduction of one of my unique
post cards as well as a very successful poster
of the exhibition.
In 1980 and 1981 few significant exhibitions,
in which I participated, were organized. Here,
I distinguish especially MAIL ETC., ART (traveling
correspondence art exhibition), which began
in January 1979 at the Colorado Boulder University,
traveled around American universities all through
the year and finished at Boulder again, in February
1980. My art stamps and the post card Cosmic
Hieroglyphs were published in the beautiful
and colorful catalogue. Besides this, in the
introductory text, the critic Jim Field emphasized
my, as he said “art manifesto” Fragments about
Signalism , along with a review of the works
by Canadian Chuck Stake, American Richard Kostelanetz
and Frenchman Jean-Paul Thenot.(28)
Exhibition MISLAID INFORMATION organised as
well by students this time in the place WAGA
WAGA in Australia was also interesting. Selected
material (which included my artistic stamps
entitled “Signal Art”), was published in a special
issue of the students’ magazine Race , devoted
entirely, to this project.
Within the edition “Factotum-Art, Verona 1980,
Sarenco, Eugenio Miccini and Franco Verdi, printed
a collection of essays devoted to the book as
a work of art titled Liber (practica internazionale
del libro d’ artista). Work on this project
began back in 1978, when these avant-garde poets
demanded by letters quite a number of artists
to send them one artists’ book each for the
planned exhibition and book (collection). There
were 141 artists (poets, avant-garde researcher)
from a few countries who participated in this
project, with Italians predominating.
In his inspiring introduction Eugenio Miccini
said that the book, in the new artistic practice,
from a mythical object had become a “subject,
anti-book, allegory”.
Among many artists’ books in the collection
there was a reproduction of the single copy
of my signalist book Cobol which was made of
used computer cards with interventions with
a marker. Dimensions of the book was 8.5x19
cm, and the reproduction showed that it was
produced in Belgrade in 1978.(29)
I co-operated most frequently and most successfully
with the Italians from the very beginning, ever
since I joined the courses of avant-garde movements
in sixties and seventies. I took part in many
exhibitions in Italy, I was represented in their
collections and anthologies of visual poetry
and mail-art. With the exception of the Julian
Kornahuzer’s study in Poland, Italians have
shown the greatest interest in signalism. The
number of authors who wrote about our avant-garde
movement witnessed this fact: A. Spatola, M.
Perfetti, M.D. Ambrosio, A. Lora Totino, E.
Minarelli.
This co-operation continues with the new generation
of avant-garde authors, i.e. the third wave
of mail-artists, with Nikola Frangione as one
of its leading representatives. Frangione included
my works in the book Snapshot (collective work
of mail-art), which was published in only 100
bibliophile (I own the 44th copy) copies in
January 1980. That same year, the same author
edited and published the international mail-art
magazine Commonpress no. 26 with the leading
topic “Zen and Art”, in which few of my artistic
stamps from the series Self Portrait were found.
In the beginning of 1980, American Jane Ellen
Gilmor edited and published Commonpress no.
25 with the topic “Ruins”. One visual poem,
which I reprinted later in the collection Brain
Soup (1982) was published in this issue.
The name of Belgian Guy Schraenen from Antwerp
was known and respected in avant-garde circles
a long time ago. In October 1980 this organizer
and theoretician began a project which will
certainly be noted in large letters in the history
of mail-art.
Namely, Schraenen initiated mail-art party named
ANTWEP INTERNATIONAL MAIL-ART FESTIVAL (exhibitions,
lectures, projections), which would last all
the year long, in the Internationaal Cultureel
Centrum in Antwerp. Within this festival Schraenen
also published Libellus the first monthly publication
for mail-art. Various works concerning mail-art,
concrete and visual poetry, manifestos, messages,
sentences, information and invitations for participation
in exhibitions, collections, anthologies and
other projects of avant-garde artists from Brazil
to Japan, and from Finland to Australia were
published in Libellus, 12 issues of which appeared
from October 1980 till October 1981. Starting
from the second volume of his magazine, Schraenen
began writing his specific diary of received
mail with the names of senders, which gradually
grew from one issue to the other. From the first
issue he published stamps (stamp prints) with
the imaginary countenance of one or two mail-artists.
A few of my visual poems and mail-art works
appeared in Libellus. Stamp (blue stamp print)
with my imaginary countenance(30) was published
in issue no. 12, and at the same time, Schraenen
sent me prints of these stamps on special paper
as well as a special envelope of his ICC (small
press archive communication) with a stamp.
Apart from the mentioned actions initiated and
achieved by artists, as we have seen, it is
significant to mention actions of an official
institution. Metronom (Espai del Centre de Documentacio
d’Art Actual) from Barcelona organized a great
mail-art exhibition from October 13 to November
21, 1980, with a voluminous catalogue in which
one work of each participant was printed. A
year later, this institution arranged an exhibition
devoted to artists’ books, also in October and
November. As Rafael Tous, director of Metronom,
informed us, about 2000 books by more than 800
artists arrived for this exhibition. In the
voluminous catalogue, critics and theoreticians
tried to define “artists’ books” and determine
their role in new trends. For Hubert Kretschmer,
the form of the book is a message itself.(31)
Jose Luis Mata started from the fact that production
of special books, object-books, anti-books and
everything that can be connected with the idea
of a book, is in fact a “spark of revolt” against
customary, often one-dimensional living and
creative practice.(32) For Guy Schraenen, artists’
book, together with dadaism, has revolutionised
the artistic world of the twentieth century.
According to this critic, artists’ book, has
contributed to this revolutionizing not only
by searching for new forms or contents, but
by spreading works of art which was as significant,
and one could add by broadening the limits of
art.(33)
The front page of my signalist book Fortran,
Belgrade 1981 (one more book from the family
of fortran) was published in the Metronom catalogue
on page 117, as item 624. Its basic characteristics:
“libre original, 8 pag.-8x19 cm” were given
on page 187 with the same number.
Towards the end of August 1981, Peter Jorg Splettstosser
organized an exhibition of art stamps STAMP
= QUOTATION QUOTATION = STAMP for the Festival
of Culture in Bremen. After Splettstosser’s
invitation, 123 artists, poets and composers
sent their ideas (designs) for artistic stamps
of size not bigger than 8x5 cm. The catalogue
of the exhibition was in fact produced manually
of stamp seals in different colors and represented
an exceptionally interesting collection in which
variety of artistic possibilities of this form
of mail-art could really be recognized. After
the exhibition, Peter Jorg Splettstosser sent
stamps to all the authors, which he had made
according to their designs. This is how I obtained
the stamp with the message THINK ABOUT MAIL-ART
which framed a drawing typical for my fine art
interventions.
In my Diary , which I kept intensively at the
time, there is a note dated 24.9.1981 (Thursday):
“Letter from Japanese city Kobe with the catalogue
and two photos from the exhibition Portopia
‘81. The exhibition was opened in mid March
and lasted till September 15. It was visited
by 14 million people. Mail art named “Letters
to Kobe” was as well very successfully presented
together with the this grandiose exhibition.
According to the organizers, this part of the
exhibition was seen by three million people.
In Kobe, mail-art was really “seen”.
Young Belgian artist Guy Bleus, organized an
international mail-art exhibition ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
in Brussels in October 1981. Specialty of this
exhibition, i.e. of its catalogue, was the fact
that works in it were not printed as usual,
but transferred to microfilms and then attached
to the printed part of the catalogue.(34)
Most spectacular and certainly most significant
mail-art exhibition in 1981 and not only then,
was staged as part of XVI Biennial in Sao Paolo.
This performance contributed a great deal to
further recognition of mail-art and its striving
to become “some sort of cultural capillary network
of cosmic art”. Biennial is so well known in
the world that I was quite surprised when a
letter arrived from Walter Zanini, president
of Biennial Counsel and one of its main organizers
inviting me to participate at the exhibition
“Nucleus I - Mail - Art” which was designed
as a part of XVI Biennial.
I have known Zanini earlier since I participated
in the exhibitions Prospectiva (1974) and Poetica
Visualis (1977), which he had very successfully
organized as a director of the Museum of Contemporary
Art at the University of San Paolo. This time,
for the Biennial, I mostly sent him previously
copied and printed materials with interventions
on some of the works, the material that I participated
with at other exhibitions of similar kind. Zanini
informed me by a letter of July 1 that he received
the works, thanked me and said that he would
send new information about the exhibition he
prepared in due time.
XVI Biennial in San Paolo lasted from October
16 to December 20, 1981. On December 6, I received
another letter from Walter Zanini informing
me about some details of this great performance.
According to his words, more than six thousand
documents were presented at the mail-art exhibition
in a space of 2000 cubic meters. Among other
foreign mail-artists the following artists attended
personally this exceptional mail-art celebration:
Cavellini, Ulises Carrion and Jonier Marin.
Zanini ended his letter with a promise that
he would soon send the catalogue of the exhibition.
The catalogue which arrived afterwards confirmed
all the grandeur of this mail-art performance
in Sao Paolo.(35)
I will finish describing exhibitions that I
took part in during 1981 which was extremely
rich in mail-art happenings, with a note about
ARTISTS’ POSTAGE STAMPS exhibition which I organized
together with Slavko Timotijevic, historian
of art and fine art critic, at the Happy Gallery
of SKC where he was director, in November 1981.(36)
At the exhibition, 93 artists from several countries
participated. Quite a good catalogue was printed
with reproductions of stamps in black and white
as well as two post cards with reproduced artists’
stamps.
In the following few years my interest in mail-art
did not diminish significantly, but I became
considerably more choosy and selective concerning
exhibitions, and I participated only when I
evaluated and judged from the invitation or
some other means, that certain aesthetic quality
and research improvement in this new artistic
field would be expressed, that it would not
be reduced to mere communication.
Fine art critics could not remain indifferent
to mail-art and its experimental improvements
any longer. On this occasion I would like to
mention our outstanding fine art critic Zoran
Markus who, besides interest in Signalism,(37)
showed a lively interest in mail-art. In 1982
Markus among other included, a few of my mail-art
works in his IZBOR ‘82 (Selection). Some of
them - letter On Kawari and a manually produced
post card were published in the catalogue of
the exhibition. I assume that this was one of
the first inclusions of mail-art in a first-class
exhibition in our country.(38)
In the introductory text of the catalogue, Zoran
Markus talked about mail-art with plenty of
understanding, especially analyzing “Unsuccessful
Communication”. According to his words “post
cards were returned with notes by postmen and
those concerning Unsuccessful Communication
form a series of social, professional and linguistic
data broadening the sense of the basic message”.(39)
From 1982 till the moment when I am writing
this (October 1987), I had three one-man exhibitions
and participated in more than ten collective
mail-art exhibitions in the world. Among them,
INTERNATIONAL MAIL-ART EXHIBITION OF VISUAL
MESSAGE ‘82 at Kwan Hoon museum of fine arts
in Seoul 1982 and SEOUL INTERNATIONAL MAIL-ART
EXHIBITION in the Art Centre of Korea in the
same town next year should not be forgotten.
On the occasion of both exhibitions well prepared
catalogues were published.(40)
Peter Kustermann from Minden (West Germany)
published some sort of poetical-mail-artistic
collection titled Kein Krieg in meiner Stadt!
It is printed on the occasion of the exhibition
with the same name organized by the same author.(41)
The same year, I received a catalogue TIMBRES
D’ARTISTES from Jean-Marc Rastorfer, published
after the international exhibition of artistic
stamps organized by Rastorfer in Laussane back
in 1980.
In autumn 1982, my one-man exhibition THINK
ABOUT SIGNALISM was organised as part of the
XX October Meeting of Writers. The exhibition
included works in the field of visual, gesture
poetry and mail-art. Besides some visual works,
texts Particularities and Convergences in Signalist
Poetics (Matteo D’Ambrosio) and What is Signalism
(Dave Oz) were published in the catalogue.(42)
My following one-man exhibitions were: SIGNALIST
RESEARCH, (visual poetry, mail-art) in the gallery
KOV, in Vrsac in 1983, and SIGNAL ART, some
kind of retrospection of my complete work in
the Gallery of the Contemporary Art Museum in
October 1984.(43) Both exhibitions included
mail-art works.
Signal Art was the last one-man exhibition I
had. In the meantime, I have exhibited my mail-art
works at international collective exhibitions:
INTERNATIONAL MAIL-ART EXHIBITION in Budapest
1984, L’OBJET CULTUREL in Pon-a-Mousson, Lorraine
1985, THE SCROLL UNROLLS in Janco DADA museum
Israel 1985, INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS’ POSTAGE
STAMPS EXHIBITION in Weddel 1985, ARTISTS’ BOOK
in Oldenburg 1986, LA COCOTIER (International
mail-art exhibition) in Noumea, New Caledonia
1986, BELEGKEPEK (Stamp Images) in Budapest
1987 PAISATGE (Exposicio Internacional de Mail-Art)
in La Carrotxa, Portugal 1987, etc.
Bernard Lobach, outstanding German conceptual
artist published a voluminous catalogue named
“The Bible of Artists’ Postage Stamps” on the
occasion of INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS’ STAMPS EXHIBITION
which he organized in Wedel in 1985. The organizer
of the ARTIST’ BOOKS exhibition in Oldenburg
was Klaus Groh. Although Lobach rightfully called
his publication “The Bible of Artists’ Postage
Stamps”, it seems to me, that Groh had even
more right to name the catalogue of his exhibition
“The Bible of Artists’ Books”. This catalogue
contained few significant theoretical contributions,
and answers to the question “Why artists’ books?”
by authors themselves, and finally numerous
reproductions of works.(44)
Apart from one-man exhibitions and participation
at international mail-art exhibitions in 1983,
I sent a few post cards to Aleksandar Flaker,
an excellent expert in Russian avant-garde from
Zagreb, as part of the project SIGNALIST COMMUNICATION,
which I practiced under different circumstances
and on different occasions from the very beginning
of my dealing with mail-art. Stamps Think about
Signalism and Think about Mail-art were sstamped
on these cards with artists’ stamps and small
collages, etc. Finally, a SIGNALIST BOOK was
mailed, made of computer cards with indication
saying that it is unique, made especially for
professor Flaker.(45)
During June and July 1984, at certain time intervals,
I mailed a series of eighteen postcards to literary
critic Zivan Zivkovic.(46) This series included
three types of postcards. In the first group
were photo cards with motives from Visual poems
Lunometre, I will Tell you with Strawberries
or Robin in the Cage, Alphabet and one fragment
from the visual essay Geometry of the Poem.
Five of such cards were mailed to Zivkovic:
two were bore stamps with Think about Mail-Art
and the date when one was expected to think
about mail-art was indicated. On one postcard
the determined date was 3. 7. 1984 and on the
other 27. X 1984. On the remaining three cards
stood the stamp THINK ABOUT SIGNALISM. The dates
suggested for thinking were 14. VI 1984, 16
VIII 1984 and 7. XII 1984.
The second series of seven postcards included
in fact processed computer cards. They were
of different colors. Most of them included the
message Think about Signalism, this time without
a suggested date for thinking. On many cards
there were artists’ stamps with different interventions
made with a blue marker.The third series were
hand made postcards, made of cardboard. There
were six of them. Three were made of black cardboard,
two of green and one of white. Contrary to the
previous ones, all six cards were mailed as
registered letters and five had indication -
urgent . Drawings, visual poems and copied or
for that occasion especially made artists’ stamps
were on the cards. Countenance of Goethe and
a handmade message “Think about Signalism” (in
English) beside it are on one of the cards made
of black cardboard. On the other one, there
are deformed letters, etc.
Two-way communication was achieved with the
poet Slobodan Pavicevic. In autumn 1984, we
exchanged a few postcards of different appearance
and design with different messages. Among others,
Slobodan treated two sentimental postcards from
the thirties by putting his stamps and collages
on them and changing in this way the very essence
their trash appearance and message. Here are
also treated cards of Zmaj Children Festival
and Children Sparks , one ancient postcard from
Paris and a more recent postcard with the face
of a Massai girl from East Africa.
Postcards I sent to Slobodan Pavicevic were
made of computer cards, cardboard and already
existing picture postcards published by the
National Museum in Belgrade. These picture postcards
with faces of Archangel Gabrielle, an unknown
saint from Gradac, a miniature from Miroslav
gospel, a sculpture from Lepenski Vir and antique
motives were treated by drawings, artists’ postage
stamps and stamps.
Pavicevic and I planned to publish our mail-art
action, i.e. its material (postcards) in a book.
Unfortunately this idea was not effectuated
so far.
I have noted previously that I have become more
choosy and selective concerning participation
in international mail-art projects. I have established
some rather strict criteria for such participation
and I do not deviate from them. A few days ago,
in my mail-box which was by the way made especially
for the needs of mail-art back in May 1970,
for mail-art purposes, a letter arrived from
Galantai-Artpool archives in Budapest. They
are inviting me to send my mail-art works for
the Exhibition “Duchamp Spirit in Contemporary
Art”. The exhibition is being organized on the
occasion of hundredth anniversary of the great
Dadaist magus Marcel Duchamp (1887 -1987). I
will certainly participate in such a project.
Notes:
[1] I think that the difference should be emphasised
between Signalist manifestation as understood
here in communication mail-art sense and Signalist
manifestation as I defined my actions in the
frame of gestual poetry at he beginning. In
the new issue of Signal, besides photos of a
gestual action there an explanation Signalist
manifestation I defined then signalist manifestation
(gestual poetry) as “new, open communication
system, in which the artist (poet, producer
of art), and frequently the consumer of the
work still I creation both become integral parts
of the final artistic creation.” On the published
photography, I hold a poster with parts of my
computer poem With noodles certainly, created
in the Mathematical Institute in Belgrade 1971
in two series. In the first series the action
is performed with the poster with the mentioned
computer poem sealed on it, and in the second,
my playing with computer cards is recorded by
a camera. Part of this action (three photos)
is published in the book Algol (1980) entitled
Gestual Poem.I have performed first signalist
manifestation of this type (action, gestual
poetry) on April 14 1969 with the poster Hotbed.
I have printed 80 copies of this poster-poem
size (36x52 cm) on cardboard in several colours
with one of my friends, half illegally in the
great printing company “Privredni pregled” in
the beginning of April 1969. After that, the
mentioned day, I sealed the biggest part of
the poster poem in Belgrade, mostly in the centre
of the city, in public places, on walls, windows
and accesses to certain cultural institutions.
I remember well the excitements I felt while
placing two poster-poems (red and black) on
the wall of the long, at the time dark corridor
of Publishing house “Prosveta” in Cika Ljubina
street 1. The posters disappeared from “Prosveta”
(they were removed) during the same day, as
I convinced myself later.I have performed a
similar action on July 3 1970, during IV Belgrade
threeanial of Yugoslav fine art, in which I
participated. During the opening of this exhibition
I distributed to the visitors and participants
poster-poem Signalist poetry and talked about
the contents and meaning of this communication
action.There were four visual poems on the front
page of this poster poem, and six variations
of the computer poem With noodles certainly
on the back cover. One computer card was attached
to the poster. I remember a conversation with
Oto Bihalji Merin and his half humorous question,
why do I give him the poster-poem with the red
computer card, when he noticed that the cards
were in different colours and the red one was
the rarest.One should neither forget here, the
gestual action Head Movements performed the
same year 1970 in one of the devices for express
photography in Bezistan, Terazije. Part of these
photos was published on the cover of my collection
Staircase (1971) without any note about their
meaning.
[2] It is interesting to mention, that Michele
Perfetti, known Italian visual poet, mail-artist
and critic has mentioned, in his text Poesia
e violenca (Signal) in the journal "Corriere
del giorno", October 21 1971, the Signalist
Manifestation I have organised in Belgrade as
an international exhibition of experimental
poetry probably due to insufficient knowledge
of language.
[3] This could be translated as "book of
the artist". The following phrases are
used as well: "book as work of art"
( G. Celan) and "bookwork".According
to the opinion expressed by Ulises Carrion critic
and mail-artist in his essay The New Art of
making Books, (see Second Thoughts, Void, Amsterdam
1980, pp 6-22), a book is not only a box containing
words and even less a "luggage with words".
A book might as well exist as an autonomous
self sufficient form, including maybe the text,
but the text which emphasises the form, the
text which is an functional part of that form.
In traditional literature says Carrion the writer
writes a text. This text (poetry or prose) ignores
completely the fact that the book is not only
a carrier of words, but an independent space-time
sequence. In the new art, a writer does not
write a text, he produces a book.Richard Kostelanetz,
American poet, critic and avant-garde artist
joined this effort to define new a artist book
(bookwork). In his essay Book-Art he determines
the new book, book as art work, as "imaginative
book" as well.According to Kostelanetz
sentences in a conventional book are arranged
in rectangular blocks, uniformed looking like
soldiers in battle. In the imaginative book
an effort is made to do something with syntax,
format, pages, cover, form, size, sequence,
structure, binding, i.e. with all the elements
which should be changed to create a somewhat
different book. This artist says that the artists
book is produced with the aim to communicate
by imaginative phenomena, "in this way
something completely different from the experience
of reading is created.
[4] About mid 1972 Guillermo Deisler, visual
artist and athologist from Chile, sent me from
Atofagasta a letter and a short review of Fortan.
This review was later translated and published
in the book Signalism in the World (edited by
M.B. Šijakovic), Belgrade 1984.In this text
Deisler sees Fortran in the following way:"Application
of the punched cards, previously treated by
a computer, as pages of a signalist book brings
us a series of meanings from the world in which
we transform ourselves into figures, codes which
should be "read"; world of programming,
punching, interpreting of data; world which
is discovered from research of numerals produced
by a machine able to achieve even the most complicated
operations with the speed of light as an only
restriction.This is not a protest, it is simply
stated. There are hand written characters on
these cards, graphism of Todorovic, in a justaposition
which shows a paradox of our personal existences
which are confined in a very complicated world
full of contradictions. We are there discovering
ourselves capured in the network of speech from
the simplest family or individual decissions
to the moment in which our choice turns into
something unpredicted."(See Guillermo Deisler:
Fortran - Signalist Book by Miroljub Todorovic,
"Signalism in the World", p 18.)
[5] On the occasion of this stamp and its message,
on of our critics states that it represents
a real "mini manifesto of signalism"
and that the receipt of a card with this stamp
excites and inspires him whenever he receives
it. On the other hand, Radivoj Cveticanin would
note somewhat cynically and humorously in his
text Signals above Poetry, Omladinske novine"
No. 34, July 6 1974:"Do not be surprised
if one day a postman would leave a post card
with one single gentle command "Think about
Signalism", in your post box.First and
natural question after arrival of such mail
would be - What does Signalism want again. Those
who are informed know about the "aggressiveness"
of this movement in modern art creation; postcard
which is usually mailed to such people, bothers
them. It reminds that one should think about
Signalism without interruption as was the case
with "Prodixan" at certain time.
[6] Later (1979) I would make my second stamp
with the text of Jubilee character: SIGNALISM
1959 - 1979 Think about signalism.
[7] Proceedings was published by Daylight Press
in 1976, on the occasion of STAMP ART SHOW exhibition
(where material from the proceedings was represented)
in the bookstore Other Books and So, Amsterdam,
from April 27 to May 1976.
[8] Some of the treated photocopies are mentioned
by Dr Marvin Sackner, known American collector
of concrete and visual poetry, in the Catalogue
of his Archive."TODOROVIC, MIROLJUB, photocopies
in envelope, signed and inscribed to Avalanche
Magazine".According to the date, Sackner
purchased these photocopies from the journal
Avalanche in 1983. (See catalogue The Ruth and
Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual
Poetry 1984, p.811).Photocopy of the text Cosmic
Hieroglyphs (different variations) with caption
Signalist Project, was published (the list is
not complete) in the following publications:-Jan
Chwalezyk: COUNTERPOINT, Wroclaw 1972 (Besides
Cosmic Hieroglyphs one work from the series
The Eye, gestual poem Lunar Sign, two letters
from the series Signalist Communication and
the manifesto Communication - entity - thought,
in English).- J.H. Kocman: LOVE, Brno 1972.-
Ida Biard: FRENCH WINDOW, Paris 1972-1973.-
Bill Vazan: CONTACTS, Montreal 1973. (Besides
a photocopy of Cosmic Hieroglyphs, postcards
Cosmic Communication and Gordian Knot were published
as well as a part of gestual poem Lunar Sign.
[9] Official fine art critic, (even the one
which gravitated towards SKC) has of course
avoided this exhibition. Three shorter notes
were published (in Politika on February 26 and
27 and Ekspres politika on February 27 1973
entitled Communication. Belgrade Student published
on March 13 1973 with a title Reinvestigations
a very brutal attack against the exhibition
and my creative work on the whole and even the
gallery itself because of the exhibition. The
attack was signed by pseudonym Ivan Fazetna.It
is interesting that Felipe Ehrenberg registered
the exhibition, i.e. its catalogue in the English
avant-garde journal Contexts No. 5, 1973.[10]
Official fine art critic, (even the one which
gravitated towards SKC) has of course avoided
this exhibition. Three shorter notes were published
(in Politika on February 26 and 27 and Ekspres
politika on February 27 1973 entitled Communication.
Belgrade Student published on March 13 1973
with a title Reinvestigations a very brutal
attack against the exhibition and my creative
work on the whole and even the gallery itself
because of the exhibition. The attack was signed
by pseudonym Ivan Fazetna.It is interesting
that Felipe Ehrenberg registered the exhibition,
i.e. its catalogue in the English avant-garde
journal Contexts No. 5, 1973.
[11] Material from the exhibition and the manifesto
Communication - entity - thought itself, translated
into English, were published in the following
publications (incomplete data):- Clive Robertson:
A CONCEPTOGRAPHIC READING OF OUR WORLD THERMOMETER,
Calgary 1973. (Two works from the series The
Eye and the Manifesto were published. The whole
material was shown on Canadian television.)-
SIGNIFYING, Kyoto, Japan 1974. (Communication
- entity - thought, in English, new improved
translation).- ORGON No. 3, Madrid 1977. (The
Eye with the text from the catalogue, about
the eye, in English and Spanish).-DOC(K)S No.
12, Paris - Ventabren 1978. (Communication -
entity - thought, in English).Foreign critics
and theoreticians cited and commented on the
Manifesto. Klaus Groh cited it and took it as
a basis for a debate about Signalism in his
essay Miroljub Todorovic and Signalism. Based
on the statements from this manifesto, in his
essay Particulars and Convergence in Signalist
Poetic Matteo D'Ambrosio established that Signalism
approached conceptual art. (See these texts
in the book Signalism in the World, Belgrade
1984.)
[12] Besides these printed postcards I produced
by photographic technique 250 copies of a series
of eight picture postcards. On these picture
postcards there were parts of visual poem Labyrinth
(from the book Kiberno 1970), Lunometre, With
strawberries I will tell you or robin in the
cage, Alphabet, and a visual poem which will
later be published in the book Algol (1980),
in which all these poems will be published joined
to the cycle of permutational poetry Winter
snow runs the horse.Visual poems (parts of poems)
from the picture postcards were published in
the following journals, catalogues and anthologies:-
MIX MAGAZINE No. 6, Woleville, Canada 1974.-
FUNF OSTERROPPAISCHE KUNSTLER, Institut fur
Moderne Kunst, Nurneberg, 1975.- Joseph M. Figueres,
Manuel de Seabra: ANTOLOGIA DA POESIA VISUAL
EUROPEIA, Lisabon 1977.- DOC(K)S, No.12, Paris
- Ventabren 1978.- KALDRON No. 11, Grover City,
USA 1980.- INTERSTATE No. 14, Austin 1981.-
NEMEZETKOZI, "MAIL ART" KIALLITAS
(catalogue), Budapest 1984.- Andrej Tisma: PRIVATE
LIFE (catalogue), Novi Sad 1986.
[13] Jun Muzukami: POST DOCUMENTS, Nagoya 1975.
(Emblem of Signalism, Lunometre, Gordian Knot
and Signalist manifestation with the text "Fragments
on Signalism" were published). Fernando
Millan, Jesus Garcia Sanchez: LA ESCRITURA EN
LIBERTAD, Madrid 1975. (Lunometre was published).Besides
previous the postcards were published in the
following:- MIX MAGAZINE No. 3, Saskatoon, Canada
1973 (Emblem of Signalism and Gordian Knot).-
MIX MAGAZINE No. 5, 1974 (Signalist Project
Cosmic Communication).- Terry Reid, Gwen Stainton,
Geoff Tenant: MASK PRODUCTION, Mildura, Australia
1976. (Signalist manifestation).- Walter Zanini,
Julio Plaza: POETICAS VISUAIS, Sao Paulo 1977.
(Signalist manifestation).- Romano Peli: MANTUA
MAIL, Mantua 1978. (Signalist Project Cosmic
Communication).- SPRACHEN JENSEITS VON DICHTUNG,
Munster 1979. (Anagrams and Gordian Knot).-
VERICALISMO No. 21/22, Catania 1982. (Signalist
Project Cosmic Communication).- Julian Kornhauzer:
TRAGARZE ZDAN (antologia mlodej poezji serbskiej),
Krakow - Wroclaw 1983. (Alphabet together with
picture postcards Labyrinth, Winter snow runs
the horse and five other visual poems).
[14] In this period I participated in many projects
and numerous exhibitions of mail-art in the
world. List of these exhibitions together with
collective exhibitions of concrete and visual
poetry is found in my book Algol, Belgrade 1980
and in the catalogue Mail-Art, Belgrade 1981.
[15] Here are the names of only few authors
and book titles:J.H. Kocman: CHROMATOGRAPHIC
BOOK, Yutaka Matsuzawa: VANISKINGS (1922 - 1975),
Richard Kostelanetz: AD INFINITUM - A FICTION,
Bogdanka Poznanovi_: STELLATA, Endre Tot: EXERCISE,
Luciano Ori: LOVE STORY, Robert Filliou: DEBUT
ET FIN D'UN LIVRE SANS FIN, Klaus Groh: RELATIVITIES,
Ken Friedman: COMPLETITION BY KEN FRIEDMAN,
etc.
[16] This Canadian critic would later publish
an essay about Signalism and Signalist Documentation
Centre in the journal Mexican Art Magazine (October
1982), using the pseudonym Dave Oz. It is interesting
that he internationalises my term signalism
in this text, i.e. he tries to include mail-art
in it. This is not accidental. About seventies
David Zack sent me his works (visual poems and
drawings), by cordiality of Klaus Groh, with
the note that they are signalist works. So Zack
was the firs and only author (artist) who joined
Serbian (Yugoslav) avant-garde movement Signalism.
[17] Enzo Minarelli analises Communication in
the text Poetic of Communication (see the book
Signalism in the World p.47).
[18] This French journal, that I have wrote
about separately (see Knjizevna rec, July 10
1979), besides visual poetry paid special attention
to mail-art. The whole issue of Doc(k)s (December
1978) would be devoted to mail-art, and later,
in the next issues, Julien Blaine, its founder
and editor in chief, will regularly devote more
than tens of pages for publishing mail-art works.
Blaine will not stop at this, already in 1979
he will organise a very successful mail-art
exhibition Expediteur ... Destinaire Paris,
in the Paris gallery "Lara Vinci".
Catalogue of this exhibition is in a fact a
box including works of participants, reproduced
on postcards. So, each participant received
a post card with his work.Among mail-art actions
and exhibitions by the end of seventies it is
necessary to emphasises and mention Cabaret
Voltaire, publication which is edited and published
by Steve Hitchcock from San Diego. I participated
with several works in two topical issues of
this publication MISTAKES & ERRATA (1977)
and NEW MUSIC INTERNATIONAL (1978).Spanish avant-garde
artist Mata organised successfully presentation
of mail-art in Madrid and Segovia in 1978 with
the name Black on White. At the same time Judith
Hoffberg and Joan Hugo pointed out artist' books
in the frame of mail-art by the exhibition Artwords
and Bookworks in Los Angeles and later in New
York, Indianapolis and New Orleans, in the "museums
without walls", as they say.Ken Friedman
and Mike Crane, are most deserving for organising
the exhibition Lifhtworks Envelope Show in July
1978 in Ann Arbour, and later in May 1979 in
Detroit. The journal Lightworks, sponsor of
this exhibition printed a special catalogue
with theoretical supplements by Friedman, Crane
and Charlion Burch, addresses and selected works
of certain participants. Two of my visual poems
are published in this catalogue which was itself
designed in the form of an elongated mail envelope.
[19] Part of this mail-art material was published
in my book Knockdown, Belgrade 1984.
[20] Kornahuzer will express his opinion about
mail-art in the section Gestual poetry of the
same study:“Iconography of pop-art, related
in some extent to visual poetry was replaced
by communication sphere of conceputalism which
took advantage of all the results and projects,
exhibitions, systems for registering the nature
(seismic records, encephalograms), instructions,
collections of slogans, final prints. Therefore,
citing Zmegac, everything that we could at the
beginning mark as discovered texts, or everything
that imitates them. This includes as well mail-art
(communications with different contents sent
to persons chosen by the artist), initiated
by Japanese Kavara (from New York), who in 1968,
informed daily receivers of his postcards and
telegrams at what time he wakes up. Signalist
manifestation of Todorovic is the same kind
of communication action. These manifestations
are based on presenting a series photocopied
envelopes, letters and postcards sent to his
address by avant-garde artists from all over
the world. Todorovic’s “book” named “Fortran”,
Belgrade 1972, produced of six white used computer
cards in 47 copies can be included in mail-art.
Data about the author are on the first card,
certain interventions performed by marker are
on the following four, and the stamp of the
review Signal is on the last card with the authors
signature and number of the copy. Fortran was
mailed to 47 artists. Artistic material applied
by a conceptualist is only a carrier of a priori
established idea. This statement is important
since most of the conceptualist achievements
apply linguistic texts which could point out
their natural connection with literature (i.e.
poetry. When we have posed a question in this
way, we have not made our task easier. In fact,
Todorovic’s achievement Cosmic Hieroglyphs (series
of photocopied articles from Belgrade Politika
about the destiny of space ship Pioneer flying
towards planet Jupiter), with smaller interventions
- underlined text by marker, lines - is nothing
but linguistic (completed) text, but first:
Todorovic is not its author, and second: it
is not the text which is important but the manner
how it is applied. This, for example, refers
as well to Kosuth’s definition exhibited in
the gallery. There are no deformed verbal signs
here, as in the concrete poetry, but complete
texts having a meaning. Still they participate
in the action, artistic manifestation, they
do not have their ordinary meaning (definition
of art, cosmic expedition out of solar system),
but mark as well the communication which represents
antiaesthetic reaction against conventional
art. It seems here that a different articulation
of treated texts is in question. Term from the
dictionary, fragment of an article as well as
authors instruction are transferred in the same
way as ready mades from their context (Encyclopaedia,
newspapers, preparatory phases for artistic
reality.
[21] As mentioned previously, besides long ago
deceased writers and leaders, postcards were
sent to at that time still living eminent writers:
Marko Ristic and Miroslav Krleza. Postcard Communication
sent to Marko Ristic with the address Pariska
12, Belgrade returned with a note unknown. Postcard
sent to Miroslav Krleza, Zagreb Augusta Senoe
15, with the stamp THINK ABOUT SIGNALISM, did
not return. I suppose that was the only card
from this series that was delivered to the receiver.
[22] This issue appeared in book stores only
in May.
[23] Right after appearance, Delo with mail-art
as an attractive phenomenon of avant-garde art
would be reviewed in our papers. Notes were
published in vecernje novosti (May 21 1980),
Politika (May 24 1980, with several mail-art
contributions) and Prosvetni pregled (May 30
1980). Ranko Igric and Milorad B. Pavlovic made
more extensive reviews of the anthology in Oko(July
24 1980) and Omladinske novine (May 24 1980)
respectively.
[24] This will be noted as well by Denis Poniz,
poet and critic from Slovenia in his review
of this book, entitled Signal Art in Knizevne
novine No. 627 on June 4 1981."Since the
book was printed in silk screen technique, in
black colour, some of the most successful projects
look like graphics. The new book of this artist
has appears unified and its special value is
certainly that it is the first book by a Yugoslav
author devoted completely to mail-art."It
is interesting that Poniz equalises here mail-art
and concrete poetry:"Mail-art is a form
of concrete poetry, which the author most frequently
created, in the shape of postcards, and sent
by mail."Poniz developed further his attitudes.
(See section entitled "Concrete poetry
and mail-art" in his study Concrete Poetry
, "Literary Lexicon", Vol. 23, Drzavna
zalozba Slovenije, 1984.)
[25] Branko Cegec Booking of Mail consignments,
"Oko" No. 235, 19.03.1981. My polemic
texts written on that occasion, see in the book
Step za sumindere Belgrade 1984, pp. 7-11.[26]
Poet Ivan Jelicic Merlin wrote a most confusing
and very superficial review with similar amateur
comprehension of mail-art as "private correspondence",
in Revija No. 3, Osijek, Svibanj-Lipanj 1982.In
his half illiterate text this reviewer even
asks in one moment "what the poet really
wanted to say":" ... a question arises,
what one would like to say, what is the moral,
what is wanted to be built, ruined, excluded."
[27] Timotijevic published this text in Omladinske
novine No. 295 (May 23 1981) untitled Djuro
javi se, with reproductions of postcards mailed
to Djura Jaksic and Vojislav Ilic, and one work
from the series Think about Mail-Art.
[28] MAIL ETC, ART: on introduction by Jim Field,
in the catalogue Mail etc., Art, Art, p.19,
University of Colorado, Boulder 1980.
[29] When dealing with artists' book and Italians
it is important to state the following. A complete
history of what the Italians name "la poesia
visiva" is given in the extensive catalogue
LA POESIA VISIVA (1963 - 1979), Firenza 1980,
(editors Gillo Dorfels, Vittorio Fagone, Filiberto
Mena, Ermano Migliorini and Luciano Ori). In
the catalogue, besides the reproduction of the
front page of the anthology Concrete, Visual
and Signalist Poetry,"Delo" No. 3,
1975, p.148, Section "Libri", numbered
373 it is written: "Miroljub Todorovic,
THE TOWN, Belgrado 1975, 8.3x18.8 cm pp 10.
Esemplare unico." I would now like to have
look at this artists' book, to see what it was
made of and what this Town, that I have completely
forgotten, looks like. The book is probably
owned by Luciano Ori, since among other mentioned
editors I was in contact only with him and Gillo
Dorfles.
[30] In the same issue (12) a stamp with the
countenance of avant-garde artist Chuk Stake
was published as well.
[31] Hubert Kretschmer: Whaat are Artist's Books?,
Catalogue LLIBRES D'ARTISTA/ARTIST'S BOOKS,
"Metronom, Barcelona 1981, p.25.
[32] Jose Luis Mata: Empiric Manifest, same
catalogue pp 28-29.
[33] Guy Schraenen: The Book of an is Artist
is a Work of Art., Same, pp30-31 (All the texts
in the catalogue are printed in Catalan and
English).
[34] Guy Bleus would later have a few more projects.
On of them was WORLD ART ATLAS 1983 (exhibition
and catalogue). My work is reproduced rather
poorly in this catalogue, I do not have its
photography nor a photocopy. In September 1984,
this Belgian artist edited and published Commonpress
No. 56. In this issue, besides a very instructive
essay about mail-art, he published as well a
retrospection of the journal Commonpress (1977-1984),and
the works of the participants in the exhibition
Aerogrammes, that he organised in meantime.
All the works, as Bleus underlines, more than
800 pages in A format, are transferred on four
microfilms size 10.5x15 cm (standard size of
a postcard) and attached to Commonpress.
[35] One of my works from the series Think about
Mail-Art is published in the catalogue. The
same work is reproduced as well in the catalogue
of my exhibition Mail-Art (Happy New Art Gallery,
1981), and later, somewhat changed and complemented
with artistic stamps, in the book Knockdown
(1984) on page 98. One of the works from this
series was published the same year in the French
journal Sphinx No.14/15, Hiver (Winter) 1981,
p.21.
[36] Note that this is just a partial description
and list since a rigorous selection was done.
[37] See the texts Signalism and Zenitism, "Gradina",
No.18, 1980 and Signalist Painting, proceedings
Signalism Avant-garde Creative Movement, Belgrade
1984.
[38] I would participate a few times in Golden
Pen Zlatno pero (invited) and in 25th October
Salon, 1984.
[39] Zoran Markus, IZBOR'82, cataloge of the
exhibition, Art pavillion "Cvjeta Zuzoric",
1982.
[40] I published a work created especially for
the occasion, from stamps THINK ABOUT MAIL-ART,
in the catalogue of the first exhibition. Part
of the work Signal Art was published in the
catalogue of the second one.
[41] Two Artists' Postage Stamps are published
in the catalogue.
[42] Already mentioned Canadian artist and critic
David Zack is hiding behind this pseudonym.
As mentioned previously Zack/Oz is trying, in
his text, to expand the term signalism to mail-art
on the whole, and it is evident that he considered
mail-art as one of the signalist activities.Zack/Oz
explains his attitude more explicitly in the
text Report about Signalist Action, in which
he writes about the work of Lona Spiehelman,
known American mail-artist, as signalist activity
and about him as a signalist artist.(See Mexican
Art Magazine, October 1982).
[43] In reviews of Signal Art exhibition, Zoran
Markus (Politika, October 26 1984), Dusan Djokic
(Borba, October 26 1984) and Balsa Rajcevic
(Knjizevna rec No. 244, November 1984), among
other subjects write separately about mail-art.
[44] I participated in this project with, certainly
more recent signalist book FORTRAN. Data concerning
biography with notes about exhibitions, photography
of the book and its description are on pages
1266-1269 in the catalogue.
[45] In his text Historical Sources of New Creativity
("Knjizevna rec", No. 220, 10. XI
1983 and in NOMADS of BEAUTY) pp. 17-23, Zagreb,
1988) Aleksandar Flaker would note the following:"If
avant-garde called today "historical",
although its heritage in different forms still
causes resistance whenever public assembly occurs
around theatrical or cinematography achievements
of its premises, if avant-garde nurtured on
one side literature in collage form and on the
other "picture poetical" efforts of
visualising verbal texts, then it is evident
that we have inherited these intentions of new
syncretism which also demands strongly new communication
routes outside institutional aesthetic space.
When we receive today Lunometre (1969-70) or
Cosmic hieroglyphs (1972) on postcards sent
by Miroljub Todorovic, this must remind us of
the times when Oskar Kokoska produced (lithography)
and distributed his coloured picture postcards
in Wienar Werkstatte (1908), Franc Mark arranged
his mail-art for printing, and Kruconih Russian
author of "subconscious" verse published
a series of 12 picture postcards painted by
brothers Mihail and Ivan Larionov, and Natalija
Goncharova."
[46] Zivkovic is one of the first critics who
performed deeper critical aesthetic analysis
of the mail-art phenomenon in our culture. According
to him: "It was frequently emphasised in
literature that mail-art is the art adequate
with our moment of civilisation conceptually
as well as by means of achievement, and that
it marks transfer of art (classical understanding
of the word art) into communication media. More
complete description of mail-art can be achieved
in reference to social circumstances as well
as formulation of its basic poetic principles
on the basis of concrete creative practise,
i.e. analysis of achieved works.(Zivan Zivkovic:
Mail-art - Art of Communication,, Proceedings
of the works of Pedagoska akademija za vaspitace,
No. 8, Belgrade, 1984.)Zivkovic will practically
demonstrate his attitude by analysing "Unsuccessful
Communication":"Besides different
definitions of mail-art, it is not difficult
to understand the "Unsuccessful Communication"
as art which is materialised in something different,
not only in the act of "institutionalising
mail exchange" as Jean Marc Poinsot said.
In the complex of signalist research, mail-art
"committed violence" against audience
(receivers), the same way as other forms of
art work when pushing back others, but since
in the case of Todorovic "violence"
failed (receivers do not exist), the total of
the poetical action of the "Unsuccessful
Communication" is demonstrated in communication
of the author with the Post Office, i.e. poets
acceptance of all the rules and constraints
of the system (postal) applied, leaving traces
(stamps, notes, etc.) as return information
on the postcards. From this, twofold conclusion
can be drawn: post office is the basic means
(transmission) for sending messages in mail-art,
but with Todorovic, it is something more than
that, because it enables appearance of so called
unintentional contents, unintentional news on
the mail, as official signatures, stamps, notes,
time, etc."
(Zivan Zivkovic: More than a Game, in the book
Orbits of Signalism, Belgrade 1985, p.24.)
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