No. 13, T-Shirts Issue, October 1980

Cover with a T-shirt work by Lieutenant Murnau

No. 13 of AP! consists of two separate publication, the first dedicated to T-shirts and the second to The Badge Show – being the catalog of that exhibition.

In the first publication Baroni published the contributions of seven artists who sent artists’ t-shirts. Alongside this are also several original works apparently unrelated to the issue’s theme: for instance a collage by Baroni depicted as a vampire (Vampyr 80), a collage by Ruggero Maggi with stones and sandy materials, a work by Peter Below made by computer entitled Call-Girl (1980). As always Baroni’s correspondents sent original works in 100 copies.

The second publication is a catalog devoted to The Badge Show. The first international mail art badge show, a “one-man walking exhibition performed in Forte dei Marmi by Vittore Baroni (September 8-16, 1980, 3 p.m.) with original badges from 200 artists of 24 countries.” As stated in the introduction, Baroni's idea came from a desire to parody traditional art exhibitions by presenting a performance for 1 week in which he wore a suit full of badges made after Baroni's call was answered by 200 artists from 24 countries. The results of the works greatly disappointed Baroni, as not all of them sent original works, but old works that Baroni himself already had in his archive or works that were well packaged but did not fit the badge format. This is why he decided not to create a catalog with images of all the badges made, as was the initial intention, but to publish only a few in a small catalog as a supplement to No. 13 of AP! (consisting only of intro + list of participating artists).

Text by Olimpia Di Domenico

T-shirt works by Jim “TANE” Burns, Kalejdoskop, Jacques Juin aka RA, Jack Marlow

T-shirt works by Timm Ulrichs, Joel Hubaut

Collage by Paulo Bruscky