Identity Collection 1985 / About “Identity ’85”,
Henryk Gajewski, Amsterdam, May 1985 (100 copies)
Call
Letter to a participant
Networking Paper (series), Henryk Gajewski, Amsterdam, from 1985.
Initiated by the Polish-born artist and networker Henryk Gajewski (then living in Amsterdam after leaving Poland) under the imprint Avalanche Networking, Identity 1985 was a classic circulating mail-art project focused on the theme of personal and collective identity. The open call (November 1984) invited participants to respond to questions such as “What do you identify with? Your home? Your country? Your language? Your partner? Your image? Your memory? Your future? Your family? Your friends? Your work? Your illusions? Your self…?” Contributions could take any form (ideas, poems, texts, films, books, visuals, etc.).
The project proceeded in three clearly defined phases: (1) collection of applications/confirmations (deadline 31 December 1984), culminating in the publication of a list of 25 participants from 12 countries in January 1985; (2) collection of actual contributions (deadline 30/31 May 1985), which were assembled into a physical “Identity Collection” box; (3) circulation of the complete collection from participant to participant (beginning June 1985 with Gajewski himself, ending with Clemente Padín in Montevideo in April 1986). Each recipient had approximately 1–2 weeks to use the collection as they wished (exhibition, documentation, personal viewing, etc.) before forwarding it, with the obligation not to damage works, to include a short description of use, and to send the whole package onward. The final participant could keep the collection or return individual works upon request (with postage reimbursement).
Gajewski explicitly stated that the project was not a conventional mail-art exhibition project but a networking action centred on communication and identity. He later published a small catalogue (100 copies, May 1985) documenting the process, the list of works received, and theoretical notes on “Identity of Communication.” Parallel to the circulating collection he launched the ongoing Networking Paper series (Identity / Communication / Exchange), open to unpublished original contributions on related themes.
The project is characteristic of mid-1980s Eastern-European émigré networking activity in Western Europe: a practical, low-cost, trust-based system that turned the postal network itself into both medium and subject. It also illustrates the transition from purely postal exchange toward more structured circulating collections and serial publications.
