Ilya Semenenko-Basin's Blog (450)

Thanks to Lutz Anders (Germany) for the exhibition catalogue. There is a reproduction of my work "Goodbye Cabaret! Hello life!".

I like to send my collages in the post, as well as compositions created with old institutional seals. Ultimately, I am a collagist, and I share collages. The traditions of Dadaism and Surrealism of a century ago are important to me, above all Max Ernst (1891 – 1976) and the Russian futurists.…

Mail-art from Mail_Art_Martha this time contains amongst other things a small two-page book in memory of Queen Elizabeth II.…

Another postcard-sized collage came in the post from an artist called VIRGO, who lives in Samara, Russia.

Mail-art by VIRGO who lives in Samara, Russia. The artist participates in the mail-art movement under a pseudonym. The collage is the size of a postcard. The inscription reads: "Happiness is inside".

Thank you!

The first days of the new year brought envelopes from four countries. I thank Maria E. Quiroga (Argentina) and Mail Art Martha (UK) and VIRGO (Russia) and Lutz Anders (Germany). I'll post a photo of the Mail Art here a little later. Thank you!…

I received a Mail Art from Jean-Philippe Gilliot in Belgium. Thank you!

At the end of the year a letter arrived from Horst Tress in Cologne!…

Juan Petry, the founder of Casa del Dragon gallery in Spain (Valencia), sent me his mail-art.

A mail-art artist from Samara, Russia, operating under the pseudonym VIRGO, sent me a collage exactly the size of a postcard.…

And also mail came from Luís Filipe Gomes and from Katerina Nikoltsou. Thanks!…

My Mail Art stream seemed to have dried up completely, and yet in the second half of 2022 I received something in the mail, not much at all. I will publish the results of this half-year today. So, a package from Bruno Chiarlone (Italia)!

Do you remember the cheerful frog on the postal envelope from Carien van Hest? It's time to look inside the envelope. There you will find a collage, it is made on cardboard for games.

Along with the collage come the voices of birds and the scents of the rainforest into your room.…

Judith Dagan's postage stamps are larger. You can clearly see the abstract drawing of the artist and even the microscopic signature.…

A month ago the post office delivered Mail Art by the French artist Zack, and inside the envelope there was a miniature artifact signed by the French artist Brouette Hurlante, among others. Thank you!

Dutch mail-art artist Carien van Hest sent me her new piece in an envelope with a cheerful, carefree frog. Thanks, Carien!

At the turn of summer and autumn, envelopes arrived in the mail from three mail-artists, Carien van Hest (Zutphen, The Netherlands), Katerina Nikoltsou from Greece and Zack from France.

I am very grateful.

Within Mail Art, documents about events can circulate. For example, the German mail-art artist Lars Schumacher, who lives in Burgdorf near Hanover, sent me two postcards - they are notices of a Mail Art exhibition in Berlin last August. Lars was one of the organizers. On the back of the postcards is a poster of the exhibition, with the names of the participants, and on the front (see photo) are the autographs and stamps of the participants etc.…

Mail art from the UK. Kevin Gillen and his son James Gillen, an English artist based in Hawking, Kent, have sent me an invitation to participate in a self-portrait and memories exhibition. Kevin Gillen is an ancestor of mail-art in England.

So, it's about collage and Mail Art.

Recently I received a sheet of ADDandPASS, started by the American artist and musician David Stanley Aponte. After the USA, this sheet went to Finland and then was delivered by mail to Moscow. I went too far and filled the sheet 90% full, so that the contribution of the previous authors is barely…