Although numerous examples of this practice can be traced to the time of the early avant-garde, the term ‘mail art’ did not enter the field of artistic experimentation until the late sixties. From the beginning, these creations of artists for artists were seen as exchanges of no commercial value, distributed outside the institutional circuits through international collaborative networks. Envelopes, postcards and stamps are used as creative supports, together with photocopies, prints and collages that play not only with the language and aesthetics of the official postal system, but also with its logics of communication. Both formally and conceptually, mail art can be linked to Dada, Fluxus and experimental poetry. Somewhere between the absurd and activism, it acquired greater intensity in countries under repressive political regimes, especially in Latin America.

Also included in the exhibition, curated by Maite Muñoz, are publications produced following collective open calls, as well as magazines distributed under the philosophy of mail art. These materials belong to the Fons Pere Sousa, to the Fons Nervo Óptico/Espaço N.O. and to the Edgardo Antonio Vigo documentary collection, and are seen here next to documents from the Archive’s documentary fonds.