Mail art

Mail art is an international exchange and communication movement through mail. It involves an artistic correspondence which considers the letter to be an object of art. Mail is subjected to a wide creativity, only restricted to the conditions of the mail services (size, weight, shape, allowed contents), with nonetheless an openness to the subversion of established rules. Mail art implies some principles aimed at removing it from the circuits of official art: freedom of expression, the absence of selections or juries, and the prohibition of sale.

Practiced by great French writers, carried by the artistic avant-gardes (in particular Surrealism and Dadaism), Mail art is also a popular movement, for which a fundamental pole is located in America (particularly in Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile). This database contains five influential Latin American Mail art magazines, including projects by Argentinian artist Edgardo Antonio Vigo and Uruguayan artist Clemente Padín. These publications have made it possible to propel this practice and to create artistic networks on an international level.

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