Klaus Groh: International Artists’ Cooperation
Groh, Klaus: International Artists’ Cooperation, in: Correspondence Art. Source Book for Network of International Postal Art Activity, Contemporary Art Press, San Francisco, 1984, p. 273. (Ed. by Michael Crane – Mary Stofflet)
“International Artists’ Cooperation” is a description of the author’s invaluable service as an information clearing house to the network.
An international association of creative producers from all over the world began in February, 1972. The program of the International Artists’ Cooperation indicates that this is the first association of artists based on real cooperation with intensive personal exchange of information and contact. This contradicts the generally egocentric working method of creative artists.
Info, an information sheet in English, appears in an edition of 300. Since the founding of the I.A.C., there have been twenty-one issues. The Infos are sent to thirty-nine countries, where they are recopied by the local “foreign contact centers” according to the need. The contact centers in different countries (western and eastern Europe, South and North America, Australia, Japan and South Africa) function simultaneously as Foreign Information Centers.
A close contact exists with other similar information centers in Maastricht (Holland), Vancouver and Toronto (Canada), New York and San Francisco (U.S.A.), and Krakow (Poland).
Remarkable is the constantly increasing interest of eastern European producers in intensive teamwork. The international, not commercialized, independent information exchange of creative activities is expanded constantly. The goal is to establish, eventually, a center in each country of the world.
The I.A.C. is funded by members and donors.
Klaus Groh, untitled, West Germany, 1975. Visual poem.