[magyar]
COMMONPRESS 51, "Hungary", 1984/89, 24x21 cm, with reproductions of works by 110 artists. Bookwork type publication, as well as the catalogue for the “Hungary Can Be Yours” exhibition and issue 51 of the "Commonpress" international mail art magazine. (The first version was produced by photocopying and had a circulation of 25, and the final publication in 1989 with colour offset printing with a circulation of 300.)
front cover (above) – back cover (bellow)
In the art of the 80s mail art was a free worldwide network similar to the Internet. Unlike other “art-s”, mail art was not a medium or a trend but rather a chaotic and random interactive interface open to free movement. The “network members” were volunteers and participants and/or organisers open to external and internal inspiration. One of the manifestations of the “network” operation was the Commonpress network magazine, coordinated from Poland by Pawel Petasz. Anyone was free to launch a new topic if he or she requested a serial number and took it on himself or herself to send the publication to the participants. After this the news was put up on the “mail art worldwide web”. The topic “Hungary” was inspired by the imaginative “Italian boots” of the Italian poet Adriano Spatola’s “Italy issue”.