ILLUSTRATIONS
Pages from the catalog of the project
Mail-Art Memorabilia,
Postmuseum (Musée Postal), Brussels, Belgium, 1995.
Postmuseum : in de erezaal presenteert Guy Bleus "Mail-Art Memorabilia" uit zijn archief T.A.C.-42.292 / Musée postal : dans le salon d'honneur Guy Bleus présente "Mail-Art Memorabilia" provenant de ses archives T.A.C.-42.292. G. Bleus, Wellen, Belgium, 1995. (Ed. by Guy Bleus).
Mail-Art Memorabilia,
Postmuseum (Musée Postal), Brussels, Belgium, 1995.
Postmuseum : in de erezaal presenteert Guy Bleus "Mail-Art Memorabilia" uit zijn archief T.A.C.-42.292 / Musée postal : dans le salon d'honneur Guy Bleus présente "Mail-Art Memorabilia" provenant de ses archives T.A.C.-42.292. G. Bleus, Wellen, Belgium, 1995. (Ed. by Guy Bleus).
Comment: Bleus’s work often explores "Artministration"—a critical and poetic deconstruction of bureaucracy. This exhibition highlighted the physical "relics" and "fetishes" of postal exchange, ranging from artistamps and postcards to xerography and olfactory art. It also served as a moment of transition; while the exhibition celebrated analog history, Bleus was simultaneously pioneering digital networking through projects like E-Pêle-Mêle. The catalog serves as a vital index for the 1990s Mail Art scene, featuring approximately 260 networkers and documenting the communicative rituals of the movement during the late Cold War and post-Cold War era.
"Mail-Art Memorabilia" was a significant retrospective exhibition curated by the prolific Belgian mail artist Guy Bleus, drawing from his extensive archives at The Administration Centre (T.A.C.-42.292). Held at the Postal Museum in Brussels, the show functioned as a survey of the "International and Eternal Network," displaying over 260 items including mail-objects, fax-art, artistamps, and assembling publications. Bleus, a central figure in the network since the late 1970s, utilized this exhibition to demonstrate the vast physical and conceptual scope of postal exchange. The archive T.A.C.-42.292 is one of the most important private Mail Art repositories in Europe, and this exhibition highlighted its role in preserving the ephemeral traces of global artistic communication.
"Mail-Art Memorabilia" was a significant retrospective exhibition curated by the prolific Belgian mail artist Guy Bleus, drawing from his extensive archives at The Administration Centre (T.A.C.-42.292). Held at the Postal Museum in Brussels, the show functioned as a survey of the "International and Eternal Network," displaying over 260 items including mail-objects, fax-art, artistamps, and assembling publications. Bleus, a central figure in the network since the late 1970s, utilized this exhibition to demonstrate the vast physical and conceptual scope of postal exchange. The archive T.A.C.-42.292 is one of the most important private Mail Art repositories in Europe, and this exhibition highlighted its role in preserving the ephemeral traces of global artistic communication.
