13 August 2010

Spaltenstein Project - Germany

Mail art campaign and exhibitions
"(C)OLD DEAR INJURED PERSON"

This is the title of the mail art project of the Gotthilf-Vöhringer School (Department of nursing) in Friedrichshafen and the "International Artist Initiative SPALTENSTEIN-PROJEKT”, which is issued worldwide.
Negative headlines often shape the reports on older/old people in the media. The staff at the elderly and disabled homes often suffer from this image, although they do highly professional work in their institutions. It is therefore the objective of this Mail art campaign and exhibitions, to provide the public with a different picture of the often strange world of elderly people in an artisanal way. The main focus of the campaign will therefore be the participants’ point of view on all facets of age/aging.

What is mail art?

Mail art implies that anyone who is interested in participating sends his/her self-created works of art to the initiator by mail (for free). It is important to know that the work of art remains with the initiator and will not be returned. The initiator is obliged to publish these works and can not obtain a personal profit from it. In addition, the initiator is committed to document the exhibition of the work and accord each participant a brochure/ catalog for free. In opposition to widespread customs in art competitions this campaign/exhibition takes place without evaluation or rating of individual work by others. Therefore all participants are treated equally, from amateur to professional artists. By employing this concept the Gotthilf-Vöhringer-School (Department of nursing) and the "Spaltenstein Projekt" follow the tradition of Ray Johnson (founder of the New York Correspondence School in 1962, died 1995), who first embarked on this path with the idea of international Mail Art.

Desirable is now the participation of artists, such as young and old people, patients, relatives, nurses, doctors and therapists: everyone is most welcome to participate. The entry deadline for the works, which can not be sent by e-mail, is the 31st of October 2010, the format is limited to postcard size (maximum 14x21 cm). We ask the participants to provide us with their e-mail address in addition to their postal address so we can confirm the arrival of their entry as soon as possible.

Two-mail art exhibition venues are already fixed: the “Gotthilf-Vöhringer School” and Gallery “PLATFORM 3/3” in Friedrichshafen. Several institutions in Baden-Wuerttemberg have already signalled their cities’ / town’s interest in a cooperation- either providing independent Mail-art exhibitions or subsequent projects.

For the start-up we have been generously provided with some funds by the Johannes-Ziegler-Stiftung Wilhelmsdorf and we hope to be able to secure additional funding as soon as possible to not only create a leaflet on the exhibition but a professional catalog.

By participating, the artists transfer the picture rights of their submitted works for the documentation and the publication of the exhibitions in print and Internet media to the “International Artist Initiative Spaltenstein-Projekt”.

As usual with mail art, the slogan is: "No profit, no jury, no return.", but instead you get the documentation!

Contact and shipping address:
"International Artist Initiative SPALTENSTEIN PROJECT"
Matthias Brugger,
Unterer Lettenweg 2
88677 Markdorf

GERMANY
www.spaltenstein-projekt.eu

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