ILLUSTRATIONS
Pages from Laura Cristin's monograph
Network,
Edizioni Giulia, Italy, 2022 (Ed. by Giancarlo Da Lio)
Network,
Edizioni Giulia, Italy, 2022 (Ed. by Giancarlo Da Lio)
Laura Cristin Network is a monograph authored by Giancarlo Da Lio — art critic, founder of the Venetian movement Itinerari 80 and co-founder (with the late Tiziana Baracchi) of the Ambasciata di Venezia — dedicated to the mail art trajectory of Laura Cristin Sheren, an Italian multi-media artist born in 1954 in the Bisiac linguistic territory of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, who first entered the international mail art network in the spring of 1998. The publication functions simultaneously as an artist monograph, a personal memoir, and a document of network culture: its central text is an extended essay composed by Laura Cristin Sheren herself, signed on 25 March 2022, and accompanied by photographic documentation of performances spanning from 2009 to 2021.
The book situates Laura Cristin's practice within the broader philosophical ethos of the mail art network — its decalogue of no jury, no racism, no selection — while tracing the biographical and artistic arc of an artist who defines herself through the persona "SHEren," a play on "she" and "siren," embodying a feminist, fluid, nature-attuned approach to networked art. Her entry into mail art came through Piermario Ciani in Bertiolo (Udine), who directed her toward Peter Küstermann and Angela of the Netmail group in Minden, Germany. This encounter opened a world that brought her to MekkaMinden, the Ambasciata della Poesia by Giancarlo Da Lio and Tiziana Baracchi in Venice, and eventually to the London Biennale, where she developed lasting collaborations, most notably with Dawn Redwood (London, 1936–2020), a key mentor figure in her network life.
The essay recounts collaborations and performances across multiple continents: a polyethylene-wave intervention at the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin (for the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall) with Giancarlo Da Lio; a performance at Coney Island, New York (2012) alongside Joel Cohen (The Sticker Dude); a tribute performance for Raymond Roussel at Père-Lachaise cemetery, Paris (2014, photographed by Paola Daniele); and ongoing Tarotensign actions in the Venetian landscape (2021, photographed by Giancarlo Da Lio). The text also reflects critically on the intersection of mail art and the digital sphere, the pandemic period, and the ethics of non-commercial artistic exchange. The musician and mail artist Dario Della Rossa appears as a recurring artistic companion.
The publication also documents the author's connection to the Netmail Festival (Minden, Germany, 2009, photographed by Dawn Redwood), and to SHEren's 50!, a personal celebratory mail art call for Laura Cristin's 50th birthday, which engaged the London Biennale community and requested food label contributions.
As a document, Laura Cristin Network bridges the ephemeral world of mail art — postcards, calls, stickers, artistamps, envelopes, performances — with the durability of the printed monograph, making it an essential source for researchers studying Italian participation in the international mail art network from the late 1990s into the 2020s.
Laura Cristin Sheren's official website
Tiziana Baracchi / Giancarlo Da Lio — Mail Artists Index
The book situates Laura Cristin's practice within the broader philosophical ethos of the mail art network — its decalogue of no jury, no racism, no selection — while tracing the biographical and artistic arc of an artist who defines herself through the persona "SHEren," a play on "she" and "siren," embodying a feminist, fluid, nature-attuned approach to networked art. Her entry into mail art came through Piermario Ciani in Bertiolo (Udine), who directed her toward Peter Küstermann and Angela of the Netmail group in Minden, Germany. This encounter opened a world that brought her to MekkaMinden, the Ambasciata della Poesia by Giancarlo Da Lio and Tiziana Baracchi in Venice, and eventually to the London Biennale, where she developed lasting collaborations, most notably with Dawn Redwood (London, 1936–2020), a key mentor figure in her network life.
The essay recounts collaborations and performances across multiple continents: a polyethylene-wave intervention at the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin (for the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall) with Giancarlo Da Lio; a performance at Coney Island, New York (2012) alongside Joel Cohen (The Sticker Dude); a tribute performance for Raymond Roussel at Père-Lachaise cemetery, Paris (2014, photographed by Paola Daniele); and ongoing Tarotensign actions in the Venetian landscape (2021, photographed by Giancarlo Da Lio). The text also reflects critically on the intersection of mail art and the digital sphere, the pandemic period, and the ethics of non-commercial artistic exchange. The musician and mail artist Dario Della Rossa appears as a recurring artistic companion.
The publication also documents the author's connection to the Netmail Festival (Minden, Germany, 2009, photographed by Dawn Redwood), and to SHEren's 50!, a personal celebratory mail art call for Laura Cristin's 50th birthday, which engaged the London Biennale community and requested food label contributions.
As a document, Laura Cristin Network bridges the ephemeral world of mail art — postcards, calls, stickers, artistamps, envelopes, performances — with the durability of the printed monograph, making it an essential source for researchers studying Italian participation in the international mail art network from the late 1990s into the 2020s.
Laura Cristin Sheren's official website
Tiziana Baracchi / Giancarlo Da Lio — Mail Artists Index
