Géza Perneczky - Ruud Janssen

°Mohammed. Invs. / Docs. In Ulises Carrión's archive: Concept of the project on
three A/4 xeroxed sheets, 1 sheet colour xerox copy («convovcation»),
+ 15 «convocations» by John Held Jr., + 45 «convocations» for Carrión
by div. senders.
Mohammed / Yearbook of the restricted Comm. Centre (with the gallerist Rinaldo
Rotta) Three editions in the years 1978-80
~
Literature: «...Born of a Turkish father and a Genovese mother, we find a rather striking man,
energetic, vital and full of life. What he has devised is a network, a system whereby
as he says, „Mohammed goes to the mountain, rather than vica-versa. Mohammed
goes to you.“
Starting in 1976, he set up his Centro di communicazione ristretta (Center of
restricted communication)... now he has gone far beyond 1,000 „unità“... Each
„unità“ is completed in iteself; but some can be connected with others, and so the
network continues. According to Mohammed, „the history of art is finisehd, but art
is not finished.“(...)
There is a spiritual content to this operation. As Mohammed says, „unità“
means unit, which to him means harmony. This leads to a creation of a world, if not
the world. Someone once said to him: „You are not Mohammed, you are Allah.“ He
is not trying to play God, But only serve as a medium, an intermediary between an
author-artists and 12 recipients...»
(J. A. Hoffberg: Profile: Mohammed, Genova. In: Umbrella [→ Hoffberg],
Vol. 4, #1, 1-2 p. 1981)
«When Mohammed writes that he is only going to get out 10 or 20 piece of mail art
each month in comparison to 40 or 50, there is a problem. He feels tjat mail art now
creates the need for selection because he feels that „Mail art has ended in stupidity
and in vulgarity. There are things that arrive here that I cannot print...»
( jah: Mail Art: Crisis & Concern. In: Umbrella [→Hoffberg], 4 / #2, 35 p.)
«Within the mail art cosmos, Mohammed is one fascinating, enigmatic subsystem.
As a „center of restricted communication“ Mohammed acts as a transmitter of
information and art – a kind of switchboard for images predicated upon a presribed
set of rules.
Here's how it works: An artist might have a message or an image s/he wishes
to dispatch. In order to do so via Mohammed, the creator sends an original with the
printed Mohammed masthead on it to the Center. Along with it must come the
names and addresses of 12 people who are to receive a reproduction copy of the
original (usually made by color xerography). Then the Center selects particular
images from all received and reproductions go out to the 12 named by the artist.
As well archival copies are made, two stay at the Center, another is sent to the Jean
Brown Archive in Massachusetts. Each message or image is numbered and labelled
as a „Unità“ by Mohammed. „Unità“ or unity in English is the manner in which this
message reaches all those involved by the artist's wish. It is thought of as a small
but discrete bit of harmony for participants to the process. Perhaps, too, Mohammed
(the name of the Islamic deity) gets to „play god“. That is the artist creates and
names disciplels or followers, but it is all orchestred via Mohammed. The Center
„pulls the strings“ and makes the process complete.
Well over a thousand origional messages have been sent via Mohammed
over a three year period. Exactly who created the images and where they have been
directed is scupulously recorded and published in a yearbook that one senses the
depth and commitment of the Center...
Mohammed, as a process, rages against depersonalization in communication
and alludes to an essence and sensitivity as to he ways in which what we send
becomes known to its receivers. Mesciulam, in one yearboook, refers to Noah, the
makers of the Ark. In that context he sees Mohammed as a builder of lifeboats that
float upon a flood of mass communication.»