Europe1995PartOne

Fake Picabia Brothers Europe 1995:
A Travel Diary

By John Held, Jr.

Monday, May 1, 1995: Dallas-Over the Atlantic.

Mail from Tommy Mew, Cristiario Pollare (Italy), Oblivia, Jocelyn Cazier, Cheryl Sholund. Perforate stampsheets for Cazier. Call Jenny Soup. Call Saralynn Huldy at Bush Barn Art Center about June "Faux Post" exhibition.

Get a ride to the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport and arrive at 3:30 PM. Meet Picasso Gaglione at the gate for the Paris flight. He has just arrived from San Francisco so that we can fly over together. Leave at 5:30PM. It's a seven hour flight. We sit on the aisle across from each other and talk about the upcoming rubber stamp exhibition at the Mus�e de la Poste we are going over for and the Fake Picabia performance we will do at the opening. And then there is the neverending world of Mail Art to be discussed. Perhaps foremost in our thoughts is the death of Ray Johnson, what it will mean for the medium, and the recent memorial service held in his honor in New York City this past weekend.

Tuesday, May 2, 1995: Paris

We arrive in Paris at 10:00AM local time. As we get our passports inspected and stamped and as we walk through Customs, we notice that everywhere there are signs: CORRESPONDANCE. Underneath the word in smaller letters is the English translation- transfer. The sign will remain a visual punctuation mark throughout our stay in Paris as we ride the Metro and see it repeated over and over again. CORRESPONDANCE. It's readily identifiable with Ray Johnson's New York Correspondance School. A waltz through the mail. A transfer of energy, talent, and friendship. It's a classic Mail Art word, and it's nice to be greeted with it on our arrival in Paris.

We take the Orly bus to Gare Montparnasse then walk two blocks to the Mus�e de la Poste. The exhibition is closed, but I explain to the guard that, "We are not the public." Gaglione gets a kick out of this, but of course, we are the public, and rubber stamp art and mail art are very public artforms. But this is a special occasion: the day before the opening of the largest and most complete survey of rubber stamp art on display anywhere, "L'Art Du Tampon," and one that places the rubber stamp medium directly in the canon of Modernist Art.

Kurt Schwitters, Fernand L�ger, the Futurists, Mal�vitch, Andy Warhol, Nouveau Realism, including Arman and Daniel Spoerri, Fluxus, Ben Vautier, Gilbert and George, On Kawara, Ray Johnson...and then the tide of mail art, and sure enough, there's work by Gaglione and myself, along with Timm Ulrichs, Robin Crozier, Clemente Padin, Edgardo-Antonio Vigo, Anna Banana, a special tribute to Stampelplaats...the list goes on and on.

The show is in a total disarray of construction, but it's obviously a very special installation. There are stations where visitors can stamp out their own works. There is a historical display of seals and stamps. The walls are all especially constructed for the event and some have rubber stamp handles sticking out from them. There are special rooms for Ray Johnson, the Fluxus artists. A large work by Arman. A sculpture of a rubber stamp in wax by Tony Cragg. A video room featuring a looping tape on rubber stamp art, which features a performance of mine where I roll around in a rubber wetsuit treated with glue to pick up the rubber stamps that are spread out around me. There is a wall of posters from Gaglione's Stamp Art Gallery in San Francisco.

A guard finds the Curator of the Exhibition, Sophie Nagiscarde, and her assistant Sanja Radivovic. They are nice enough to take us around the exhibition despite the chaos and their own important last minute work. Indian carvings, a special box of stamps by Yoko Ono and John Lennon, leaves from a Russian Zaum bookwork, a rubber stamp by the Dadaist Raoul Hausmann. Really it doesn't stop. This is the motherlode of the medium, and the center of the Rubber Stamp Universe for the next six months.

Sophie and Sanja take us up to their office on the seventh floor of the Museum. The catalog for the exhibition is not ready yet, it's expected to arrive tomorrow at the opening, but they present us with copies of the press catalog, which is really a great work. It's round and is illustrated in color.

There are sections on the history of the rubber stamp, early Modernism (Mal�vitch, the Bauhaus, L�ger, Kurt Schwitters), Arman, Andy Warhol, Ray Johnson, the Fluxus Artists (Nam June Paik, Ken Friedman, George Maciunas, John Lennon and Yoko Ono), Ben Vautier, Daniel Spoerri, Robert Filliou, Joseph Beuys, mainstream artists like Jenny Holzer and Sol Lewitt, and then Mail Art with the work of Bill Gaglione, John Held, Anna Banana, Clemente Padin, Edgardo-Antonio Vigo, Henryk Bzdok, Julien Blaine, and Ryosuke Cohen being mentioned. Henning Mittendorf is featured. The contributions of Stampelplaats and Rubberstampmadness are cited. Tony Cragg's sculpture is pictured. And Bill and I are pleased to see a Fake Picabia Brothers rubber stamp reproduced as well. To be included in such company is a great honor, and we of course, make this known to Sophie and Sanja, and thank them for all their research and hard work. It's been a huge project for them, not only planning the exhibition, but publishing the catalog as well.

Sanja has graciously given us the use of her apartment for our stay in Paris. Gaglione and I take the Metro sop Porte de Pantin and then walk to her apartment where we are met by her mother, who explains the details of living there, including how to feed the cat. She is from Belgrade and is visiting Sanja's other sister, who also lives in Paris and has just had a baby. As I had been to Belgrade last November, we had a pleasant conversation.

When she leaves Bill and I take showers and then go out to eat at a neighborhood bistro where he has a grilled steak, and I have veal in a cream sauce. A beer for me and mineral water for Bill. He doesn't drink. He has other, more sinister vices.

Back to the apartment and prepare some details for the next day's performance. Go to bed around 8:00 PM Paris time, but actually for us it's late in the morning of the next day, and we haven't slept for over twenty-four hours.

Wednesday, May 3, 1995: Paris

Wake up at a decent hour and go out with Picasso for caf� au lait and croissants at a neighborhood cafe. The weather is beautiful, as it was yesterday. After a long cold streak, the weather is perfect: sunny, warm, and perfect for walking in short sleeves. We take a seat at a sidewalk table and watch Parisian life float by. Cafe dining is now a worldwide phenomena, but there is always something special about the experience in Paris. Is doesn't seem that anywhere else one can witness both fashionable men and woman starting off for their work day at the same time that an African woman walks by in full tribal attire holding her son's hand with a blue tattoo under her lower lip. You just don't want to be anywhere else.

Back at Sanja's I place calls to Daniel Daligand, my long time Mail Art correspondent, who I first met in Japan in 1988, and in 1990 when he came to Dallas with his wife Christine. I also call the writer Matthew Rose, who is currently living in Paris, and his friend Michel Hosszu, one of the world's most important artist postage stamp practitioners. We make plans to visit Michel at his studio.

We take the Metro to the Bastille stop and walk to Michel Hosszu's studio. He shows us his many different artistamp editions that he produces by silk-screen. He has a large space with production facilities, storage, and living space. He shows us many of his works, and the works he does for other artists. As he's sent me alot of work for the Faux Post show I'm very familiar with his oeuvre, but Bill is seeing the work for the first time and buys one of his recent portfolios based on the characters of the Chinese New Year, and a earlier example of his work from 1982. After our studio adventure, Michel takes us to a nearby bistro where he are treated to a delicious lunch of duck in wine sauce. We talk to the owners and a photographer friend of Michel's who takes many of the photos that appear in his editions.

Picasso and I take the Metro to the Mus�e de la Poste, and once again view the exhibition, which is now in the frantic throes of final completion. It looks like an impossible task. It is now a few hours to the 6:00PM opening and there is a flurry of workmen, sawdust from drilling, ladders, last minute labeling, and determined attention to detail. Even so Sophie and Sanja take a few minutes to greet us, have a cigarette in their offices, and dispense good cheer. They are consummate organizers, and despite the usual last minute preparations, there is no doubt that once the opening evening crowd arrives all will be well. I take some notes for a review I am writing about the exhibition for Rubberstampmadness, and visit with the Press Officer for the Mus�e de la Poste, Kathleen Spar, who gives me some slides of selected works in the exhibition. Kathleen also gives Bill and I some extra press catalogs, which we have grown to love. We haven't seen the exhibition catalog yet, but we speculate that this more limited edition press catalog will be especially desired by collectors in the future.

We return by Metro to Sanja's apartment at 5:00 PM. Did I mention that one must climb seven flights of stairs to get there? It's alot easier this time without heavy suitcases. But it's a trial every time we climb. We feast on some gourmet delicatessen food that we buy in the neighborhood: crab in avocado, cucumber salad, custard. The street outside her door has cheese, wine, pastry, and butcher shops. After a shower and preparations for our performance, we take the Metro back to the Mus�e de la Poste arriving at 7:30PM.

There's a very large crowd. I would estimate that over a thousand attended the opening. Gaglione and I go up to Sanja's office and change into our Fake Picabia Brothers attire. I'm wearing a black tuxedo and the art shoes that I received from Shozo Shimamoto in Japan. Likewise, Bill is attired in black. Both of us wear derby hats in homage to our Fluxus roots.

This is the performance: While Gaglione is putting unmounted specially prepared rubber stamps bearing the "Fake Picabia Brothers, May 3, 1995, L'Art du Tampon, Mus�e de la Poste" logo, I am rubber stamping posters of our appearance with rubber stamp mounted on the soles of my shoes. These are given to the audience as well as stickers of the event. So everyone who wants one gets a souvenir. And at the conclusion of the performance I go though the crowd and give out the rubber stamps used in the performance.

Charles-Fran�oise Robic has come from Strasbourg. I met him last year in Qu�bec at a Networker Congress. Daligand and his wife Christiane are present. Juan Aquis, who inherited the Other Books and So Archive of Ulises Carrion, has come from Geneve. Matthew Rose and Michel Hosszu have come. Timm Ullrichs traveled from Germany. Maurizio Nannucci, curator of the Zona Archive has come from Florence. Sophie and Sanja look beautiful and deserve all the praise they are given.

The catalog is distributed to those in it. Two-hundred copies have come for the opening. It's an historic text on the medium. Lots on Fluxus, for which Jon Hendricks has written a catalog essay. Again, Bill and I are featured in the Mail Art section, so of course, we are flattered and pleased.

There is a champagne apr�s soir�e in a downstairs bar. Lots of photographs are taken. Someone comes up to me and tells me that Europe needs more performance art like he has seen tonight by the Fake Picabia Brothers. So that's very rewarding. And everywhere partygoers are wearing their Fake Picabia stickers and rubber stamps. Nice to be a success in Paris at a National Museum opening. It's conformation not for myself and Gaglione personally, but as representatives of the Mail Art community. We often discuss the increased inclusion of Mail Art into the canons of contemporary art in the future. This Museum show is an opening salvo.

On the Metro back to Sanja's apartment, Bill gets a 100 franc (about $20) fine for not having his ticket, which he had thrown away. So much for success. Have a beer and sandwich at a local bistro. Look at the catalog and turn in around 1:00 AM. Daligand tells me latter that a party went on till 4:00AM. It would have been impossible for Bill and I.

Thursday, May 4, 1995: Paris.

Another perfect weather day in Paris. At 9:30AM Bill and I go out to get something to eat at the same cafe we went to yesterday. Caf� au lait and croissants as Paris strolls by.

After breakfast we go to the local post office and Bill mails off some postcards. Call Matthew Rose. Go to the Gare d'Nord for train tickets for tomorrows journey to Wellen, Belgium, to see Guy Bleus. Roundtrip tickets cost about $120.

Go to the Mus�e de la Poste, where the staff seems very pleased about last evenings festivities. Many are still wearing their Fake Picabia stickers.   Picasso and I look around the gift shop at the Museum. I get a book on mail for kids that includes a section on mail art. We are given a copy of the Timbres d'Artistes catalog from the artist postage stamp show held at the Museum last year. We are also asked to take as many posters from the show as we care to take. Sopie has taken the day off, but we spend some time with Sanja discussing the previous evening and the exhibition.

Picasso and I view the exhibition for the last time. Every time we view the show there is more to see. We hope that many of our European mail art friends can view the show until its August run. We stamp out the stamps that are set out for that purpose. Gaglione is putting together a book by taking impressions of the stamps of people we visit during the trip.

Metro back to Sanja's at 5:30PM. Rest up for the evening.

At 7:30PM we take the Metro to Levallois, an autonomous section within Paris, to visit the Daligands. Charles-Fran�ois Robic is there when we arrive, and we are shortly joined by another couple. Olives and sausage are laid out as appetizers. And lots of good wine. We spend alot of time looking through Daniel's archive as he is kind enough to pull out his mail art catalogs for Bill and I to view.

Whenever I visit the mail art archive of another long-time practitioner, I am always confronted with the same feelings. Why don't I have these things too! There is so much I don't have! I feel left out. Incomplete. Yet another side of me knows that mail artists in different geographical locales have different collections, and that while Daniel may have a better selections of work from Europe, and earlier examples because of his long involvement, I have things from North America that he doesn't. It doesn't do me any good. It still depresses me. I guess that is the cross the perverted archivist has to bear.

Gaglione and I notice another thing as well. Daniel has some really beautiful works by Ben Vautier, including a personalized painting. Picasso and I are great admirers of Ben's work. I ask Daniel if he has a duplicate work of Ben's that he would like to trade for, and he gives me a catalog of the Festival of Non-Art that Ben published in 1969. It's a really important publication, and an early manifestation of the Eternal Network. Now I am confronted with the responsibility of presenting him with a suitable gift when I return home.

Gaglione stamps out all of Daligand's rubber stamps.

Daligand has the home of a true Parisian intellectual, and it is very nice to have this opportunity to relax in such a setting. We have a nice dinner, alot of wine, and stimulating conversation. We take the Metro home arriving at Sanja's at 1:00 AM.

Friday, May 5, 1995: Paris-Wellen.

Gaglione and I awake at 7:00AM. Clean the house for Sanja and pack our bags. We find a different cafe for our breakfast, one closer to the apartment. Croissants, fresh orange juice, caf� au lait. Warm weather and sunny skies. The people around us race to work. We watch it all with a bemused smile.

We buy flowers for Sanja, who has been so kind to us in lending us the use of her apartment during our stay. After shopping for some trail snacks, we board the 10:49AM train from the Gare d'Nord for Brussels. I'm reading a book on performance art by C. Carr called On Edge: Performance at the End of the Twentieth Century. I'm up to the section on Monty Cantsin and the Neoists.

We switch trains in Brussels for one to Hasselt. But at the time we are suppose to be entering Hasselt, I notice that we are instead in Liege. It appears that the train split without our knowing it. So we get off in Liege and take another from Liege to Hasselt. We arrive in Hasselt at 4:00 instead of 2:00. I call Guy from the station, and he tells us to look for Nadine, his girlfriend, who has been waiting for us.

Guy describes Nadine as a short young girl dressed in black with hair like a horse. And there she is with a long black pony-tail. We can tell right away that Nadine is her own woman. She snarls about waiting for us, but with a smirk. I like her right away.

Nadine takes Bill and I to the Administration Centre at the Centrum voor Kunsten, a converted convent. Guy and Nadine have been given the space, but no salary. But this is very much like Guy. He just wants to do his projects, present mail art to a larger audience, and do it all with a little support for a catalog and poster from the cultural centers that give much more money to mainstream artists. He has a handsome space with fax, computer, and microfilm capabilities. There are wonderful display cases to display the work. An extremely nice cabinet that holds his various texts, which makes for a very nice handout.

Currently Guy is displaying the complete run of Doc(k)s magazine, edited by Julien Blain. In the future he will present the complete editions of Vittore Baroni's Art Postale! and Commponpress, on which he is an expert. In an upstairs gallery he is preparing an exhibition of artistamps that will open the following week, and unfortunately Bill and I will have to depart before the opening.

Nadine drives us to Wellen where we meet Guy. This is my second meeting with him, the last which occured in 1989 when I came for a lecture and performance at De Media in Eeklo in Eastern Belgium near Bruge. After the event Guy drove me to Wellen and I spent a few days. Guy is the greatest! Not only is he the foremost archivist in the network, and an unrelenting worker, he is one of the nicest persons I've met in all my travels. So it's a great pleasure to be able to share his company again and to introduce him to Bill, who has, of course, developed his own relationship with Guy through the post.

Quite simply, Guy has the greatest mail art archive in the world. Not only is it in pristine order, but it is in depth for the period Guy has been participating in mail art (1978), with surprising runs of periodicals, an important catalog collection, and an unmatched poster collection...to name but a few strengths. Most of the materials are housed in archivel boxes by country and then alphabetically by artist. There are boxes also devoted to specific themes, such as Mail Art catalogs, artistamps, and rubber stamp art. I'm especially interested in the artistamp project he is currently conducting. Some 350 artists from 45 countries have submitted work.

Nadine makes us a spaghetti dinner. Last time I met Guy he was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't meet an understanding woman. It takes one to live with Guy's obsessions. But Nadine fits the bill. She loves the archive and has a sound knowledge of the material. And she loves Guy, which seems to be returned with equal fervor. It's always nice to come into a house like this.

After dinner, Guy shows us a space in the building which was the cinema his father ran in the fifties and sixties. It's going to be the home of the archive. All that dust is getting to Guy and the new space will give him additional living area when it's moved from their second floor apartment. Guy owns the building and in addition to the living area and cinema it contains a bank office, and another unoccupied space that was a snooker parlor fronting as a brothel. There's a beautiful garden that Nadine brought back at the rear of the building. A graveyard is next to it. Adjacent to the building is an 11th Century Church with a Roman tower. It's pretty damn historic.

Saturday, May 6, 1995: Wellen-Maastricht.

Wake up at 9:30 AM. Breakfast with Guy. I take a look at the earlier Commonpress issues, and Guy shows me his Mail Art Calendar, which was manufactured by a printer for his customers at the end of 1993. It's is full color in a large size and really beautiful. Each month is a different Mail Art genre (artistamps, postcards, audio art, rubber stamps). Owing to it's bulk, Guy doesn't send them out. I'm determined to carry back the first in America.

Gaglione and I call Rod Summers who lives about thirty miles away in Maastrict, Holland. Bill visited him in 1978, the last time he was in Europe, when he traveled Western and Eastern Europe for three months with then wife Anna Banana on a tour of Futurist performance works. They stopped in Maastrict and met with veteran mail and sound artist Rod Summers along the way. I met Rod in 1989 and spent a pleasant afternoon with him and Guy wandering the city and listening to Rod's audio work at his apartment. His Mail Art Skank is my choice for Network Anthem.

Bill and I take a 2:30 PM bus from Hasselt and arrive in Maastricht forty-five minutes later. Rod meets us as, and we stroll from the bus station through the center of the charming town. Along the way, we come across a flea market and Gaglione, ever watchful, spots and buys an old, apparently Dutch, rubber stamp set. We continue on to Heaven.

Yes. Heaven 69. Rod's coffeehouse-away-from-home where they specialize in exotic brands of Irish beer and hashish. It was the site of a 1992 Networker Congress that drew the like of Bleus, H. R. Fricker, Daligand's Daniel and Christine, Charles Fran�ois, Luce Fierens, Jos� and Mirea Vd Broucke.   Many got a unexpected dose of cooki�e hashish and landed on the floor.

Afterwards, Gaglione and I take a bus with Rod to his flat. He plays the tapes he made in 1978 when Bill visited with Anna and they sat around and ate bananas. Rod has one of the best sound archives in the mail art network and his VEC Archive is renowned for issuing compilation tapes and original Summer's work. Rod is English, but has lived in Holland for over twenty years. He's a bird watcher and spends as much time as he can survival camping with his wife in the interior of Iceland, where she is from.

Rod shows us the incredibly detailed records he keeps of his incoming and outgoing correspondence. He also keeps a thorough record of all the audio tapes in his collection. Guy often complains that Rod gives him grief about his collecting habits, but Rod, himself, is an inveterate packrat as well.

We take the 7:30 bus back to Hasselt and are met by Guy and Nadine. We have dinner at a Thai-Japanese restaurant, and I have sushi. I'd have preferred the mussels were they in season. Nadine goes off dancing. she is twenty years younger than Guy, and he wisely allows her some well deserved freedom. Guy, Picasso and I go for dessert at an ice cream parlor. Back to Wellen at 10:00PM.

Sunday, May 7, 1995: Wellen-Tilburg.

Breakfast with Bill, Guy and Nadine at 9:30AM. Take a look at Guy's Mail Art catalog collection. Artistamps and rubber stamps may be ruling the day, but I'm convinced that Mail Art catalogs will be much examined in the future and highly collectable.

Nadine calls the train station for schedule information. Call Ruud Janssen and tell him our travel plans.

Nadine drives us to Hasselt and we take the train to Antwerp at 3:00PM arriving at 4:18PM. From Antwerp we change trains to Roosendaal, Holland, where we arrive at 4:55. From Roosendaal we go directly to Tilburg arriving at 6:08. Ruud in there to meet us at the station. Walk to his apartment about 15 minutes from the station. Although rain is forecast, the weather remains very nice.

I've meet Ruud before at DeMedia in 1989. Bill is meeting him for the first time.   Ruud is a particularly active network both through the post and by e-mail. Gaglione wanted to see his TAM Rubber Stamp Archive as it's reputed to be among the most complete in Europe. Ruud has asked mail artists to send him impressions of his rubber stamps for many years and thousands have answered his call.

Ruud's most recent project is an interview series with thirty active mail artists, and he shows us the published results of the first two persons to have completed their interview: Klaus Groh and Michael Leigh (A-1 Waste). It's an interesting and informative project, because rather then a set list of questions, Ruud asks a new question only after receiving an answer to the previous one. The answers are coming in through the mail, over fax lines, and electronically.

Ruud is very generous and gives Bill and I alot of printed material. I'm especially interested in his Mail Art Statements project, which is a compilation of essays by various mail artists on the field. Gaglione takes impressions of Ruud stamps for his ongoing project. I dig into his mail art catalog collection.

We go to an Indian restaurant in the neighborhood for dinner. Back to Ruud's apartment to spend the night.

Monday, May 8, 1995: Tilburg-Wellen.

I should note that the period of the last few days has marked the 50th anniversary of Victory in Europe at the conclusion of the Second World War. We see the celebrations on television, and some decorated memorials, but we don't discuss the topic with our hosts. It's a given that we're friends, and that's the most important thing. We don't examine issues like what it means to have half a century pass after a major conflict and American and European friendship. No. It's a given in Mail Art.

Gaglione continues taking rubber stamp impressions for his journal. It's an impressive record of our trip.

At 1:00PM we walk to the train station stopping for coffee and a look around bookstores. Bill and I both buy a book on Yves Klein that has a nice reproduction of his blue stamp.

Take the 2:25PM train to Roosendaal. Change trains for Antwerp. Then another for Hasselt. Guy and Nadine pick us up, and we go to Wellen. Dinner at Guy's.

Bed around 12:00AM after talking to Guy and looking through the archive.

Tuesday, May 9, 1995: Wellen.

This is a big day for Guy as he is taking delivery of some philatelic display cases donated to him for his show by the Belgian PTT. The Director of the national system is coming for the opening.

Bill and I try to stay out of Guy and Nadine's hair so we take a walk through the town. Settle down at the town square for coffee in a caf�. As we are walking the streets Guy and Nadine drive by and gather us up. We go to the art gallery of a friend, where there is a bronze plaque on the entrance announcing "Guy Bleus. Art Detective."

We go back to the Administration Centre to see the progress of the display stands before Nadine drives Bill and I back to Wellen. After a brief nap we continue fishing in the archive. It's a bottomless pit.

When Guy returns home we take some photographs and pack up the printed materials we've accumulated to be shipped back home. Despite a tiring day, Guy prepares a packet of artistamps for the Faux Post show. Gaglione takes impressions of Guy's rubber stamps.

Arrive in Paris around 6:00PM. After a mishap at the Gare d'Nord with a too helpful Frenchman who relieves us of some money in the guise of buying our RER metro tickets to Orly airport, we check into the Hotel Mercure at Orly. Eat a steak dinner and go to bed.

Continue to Part II