Géza Perneczky - Ruud Janssen

with hand interventions. Luna Bisonte Ed. Columbus. (1999?)
Robin Crozier died ........................ 2001 2001
~
Literature:
(Portraits of Robin Crozier) News and Reviews. In: Kontexts, #8 (→ Gibbs).
Amsterdam, 1976. 15 p.
The Way we were. Robin Crozier's Gathering and Exchange of Memories.
In: Lightworks [→ Burch], N° 19, Winter 1988-89, 33-35 p.
Géza Perneczky: The Magazine Network. The trends of alternative art in the light
of their periodicals 1968-1988. Edition Soft Geometry. Köln, 1993. 61, 107 p.
«(...) I had also been interested in concrete and visual poetry and towards the end of
the sixties I began to make some publications of my own. But where to send them?
However, in 1970 a magazine called Pages (→ Briers) was published in England...
It was dedicated to promoting the avant-garde and included works etc. by some of
those I had met through Something Else (Dick → Higgins) but also by numerous
other creators from Europe and elsewhere that were sometimes new to me. But
what was most interesting was the information section listing publications, magazines,
artists, events etc. with contact addresses. So I was able to begin sending
my publications out to establish contacts providing me with more contacts and so
on. Soon after this a more commercial magazine Art and Artists published an
article about Robert → Filliou. In it he said he was going to have an exhibition at
the Stedelijke Museum in Amsterdam and was asking people to send him material
that he will include in the show. (...) G. J. de → Rook visited the show and he and
Robert Filliou made up pages from some of my sendings which de Rook then
included in a publication he was putting together called „Bloknoot“. So, from early
1972, slowly but surely, I became involved in the „Eternal Network“ (Filliou)
which had been christened „Mail Art“ in 1971 by Jean-Marc → Poinsot who had
organized the envoi action at the Paris Biennale. And then the snowball began
to roll. (...)
At one time there was a rapid growth in mail art emanating from oppressive
regimes – South America, Eastern Europe, etc. These „cold wars“ are now largely
relaxed and so I've noticed a rapid decrease in mail art from these areas. (...) For
myself and my own activity, when I first began in the seventies then I was into all
kinds of things, organizing shows, projects, publications, almost like the joys of
spring and a fascination with new toys. (...) „Somebody out there loves me“ was a
wonderful feeling. (...)
I suppose that mail-art is as much a finding as a searching process. I also like
the idea of working „with“ things, objects, structures, people. Cooperate activities.
Recycling. Setting up structures that lead into unknown or unforseen territories.
Chance. Serendipity. External events molding directions. I like travelling rather
than arriving. Flux. But this is talking about art. In my daily life I'm a creature of
habits, of ritual.
Most mail-artists probably know you because of your emory/memorandumproject,
where you ask a memory of a specific day from a mail-artists and in
return send him/her someone else's memory. What was the reason for starting
this project?
...When somebody contacts me for the first time or perhaps when I see someone
who I think might be interesting or whose work catches my attention I will
send them a memo/random form as part of my initial contact with them. The form
request „what do you rememeber about... (a particular date)“. On the back of the
form it says „please reply on this paper to receive another memory from someone
else.“ When I receive the completed form (which can be completed any way the
contributor wishes) I copy (if it is writing) or transpose (if it is visual) the contribution
into series of memo books. I'm working into the book number seventy right