Thomas Behling

"MAIL ART IN ACTION / FOR RUGGERO MAGGI"

 
International Mail Art Exhibition
dedicated to RUGGERO MAGGI
 
OPENING
SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER AT 3.00 PM
 
From 19 September to 29 October 2026, the Tasso and Postal History Museum (Cornello dei Tasso, Camerata Cornello, Bergamo) will host the international Mail Art exhibition “MAIL ART IN ACTION / FOR RUGGERO MAGGI”.
Artist, curator and eclectic figure on the international avant-garde scene, Ruggero Maggimade social, ethical and ecological research one of the central themes of his artistic practice. One of the leading figures in Mail Art since the 1970s, in 1979 he founded AMAZON Archive of artistic works and projects about the Amazonic World, an artistic archive dedicated to the protection of the rainforest, Ecology and Nature.
 
The exhibition project, curated by Kappa(performer and long-standing collaborator of Ruggero Maggi, with whom the artist developed numerous projects, organised exhibitions and promoted events) and by the Museum, takes shape from the works received by the Museum through a call addressed to Italian and international mail artists, who were invited to create a pro memoria card (in postcard format and free technique) dedicated of Ruggero Maggi, who recently “returned to sender”, and of his artistic and poetic journey.
 
The exhibition also offers an opportunity to talk about Mail Art with visitors and with the mail artists who shared in his projects over the years. Speakers at the opening will include: Stefano Schiavoni (Director of the MAM Museo della Mail Art in Montecarotto, Ancona), Giovanni Fontana (polyartist) and Franco Ballabeni (musician, visual artist).
 
During the twentieth century, some artists began to look at everyday objects in a new way. Following the experiments of the avant-garde movements, letters, postcards, postmarks, postage stamps and envelopes also became creative tools. It was in this context that Mail Art emerged: an international network of mail artists who use and transform postal objects and the postal system into tools of creative freedom, where ideas travel beyond the traditional circuits of art and the market.
 
“[…] Postal Art can be an extraordinary means of mass communication if conceived as an operation that can be divided into two clearly defined steps:
- as a relationship between one individual and another, or with a more or less restricted group of individuals.
- the public exhibition of a Mail Art operation can become a form of mass communication because it can be highly stimulating and educational even for a non-specialist audience.
Stimulating because it encourages interpersonal communication, and educational because of the exemplary value of its varied, simple and immediate technical methods […]”.
(extract from a text on Mail Art by R. Maggi)
 
Those who would like to become involved in this fantastic network of interpersonal communication can take part in the “OPEN LETTER to Ruggero Maggi”call for the 2026 edition of “M.A.D. Mail Art Day | 16 October”, conceived by Ruggero Maggi at the end of 2022 – from this year curated by Kappaand Stefano Schiavoni, to whom Maggi entrusted the continuation of the project – using the materials provided in the dedicated space within the exhibition to create a card to be entrusted to the Post and addressed to MAM Museo della Mail Art, c/o Palazzo Comunale, 60036 Montecarotto AN.
 
On 29 October 2026, the exhibition’s closing day and the first anniversary of Ruggero Maggi’s death, a special live link will be held with the MAM Museo della Mail Art in Montecarotto (AN), which, from 16 October 2026, will host M.A.D. Mail Art Day, with the aim of strengthening and promoting collaboration between institutions involved in preserving Mail Art and to continue the journey already begun by Maggi towards the creation of an “Archive of Archives”.
 
Below is the provisional list of mail artists whose works had been received by 4 September.
The complete list will be published once all the materials have been received.
 
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
ANDORRA Julien Rochedreux ARGENTINA Maria Castillo, Floki Gauvry AUSTRIA Monika Lederbauer, Andreas Streicher BELGIUM Ria Bauwens (Frips), H. Heip, Thomas Karz/AYNITL, Merlyn Paridaen, Sjoerd Paridaen, Laurent Wilmet BRAZIL Marcelo Dola, Hugo Pontes, Marcia Rosenberger CANADA Susan Gold, Karl Jirgens, Mailarta, Snappy, Spike Spence, Ed Varney, La Toan Vinh COLOMBIA Tulio Restrepo DENMARK Marina Salmaso FINLAND Anja Mattila-Tolvanen FRANCE Virginie Amat, Christian Burgaud, Veronique Champollion, Michel Della Vedova, Pierre-Yves Freund, Helena Gath, Virginie Loreau, Cristophe Masse, Lyza Sahertian GERMANY Thomas Behling, Stefan Brand, Brandstifter, Hans Braumüller, Hans Castrup, Dadanautik (Walter Bachmann), Mask Dannecker, Daughter Fidels, Wolfgang Faller, Thomas Glatz, Klaus Groh, Annegret Heinl, Stefan Heuer, Uwe Höfig, Claudia Liekam, Stephan J. Mitterwieser, Susanne Mitterwieser, Andreas Niederau-Kaiser, PtrziaTicTac, Peter Schubert, Lars Schumacher, Susanne Schumacher, Judith Sturm, Horst Tress, Lutz Wohlrab GREAT BRITAIN Keith Bates, Michael Leigh GREECE Nicolas Malevitsis HUNGARY Peter Abajkovics, Tibor Vass INDIA Renuka Kesaramadu IRAN Neda Mehrjoo ITALY Walter Accigliaro, Dino Aloi, Franco Altobelli, Antonio Amato, Erika Baggini, Franco Barbato, Vittore Baroni, Pier Roberto Bassi, Elisa Battistella, Nicola Bertoglio, Giuseppe Bertolino, Rovena Bocci, Mariella Bogliacino, Maria Bonaduce, Giovanni Bonanno, Adriano Bonari, Anna Boschi, Elisabetta Bosisio, Marzia Maria Braglia, Viviana Buttarelli, Mariangela Cacace, Mirta Caccaro, Alfonso Caccavale, Loredana Cacucciolo, Carla Cantore, Angela Caporaso, Bruno Cassaglia, Francesca Cenciarini, Giuliana Ceretta, Renato Cerisola, Claudio Cignatta, Tiziana Colangelo, Nellì Cordioli, Carmela Corsitto, Carla Crosio, Gianni Cudin, Crescenzio D'Ambrosio, Diana Danelli, Maria Grazia Dapuzzo, Caterina Davinio, Gian Carlo De Leo, Rino De Michele, Fabio De Poli, Albina Dealessi, Domenico "Mimmo" Di Caterino, Annitta Di Mineo, Franco Di Pede, Giovanna Donnarumma, Graziano Dovichi, Cinzia Farina, Lara Favaro, Gretel Fehr, Ilaria Feoli, Mavi Ferrando, Domenico Ferrara Foria, Marino Ficotto, Mimicha Finazzi (Skinaz), Anna Finetti, Giovanni Fontana, Roberto Formigoni, Nicola Frangione, Giglio Frigerio, Marco Furia, Antonella Gandini, Ornella Garbin, Claudio Gavina, Guido Gelatti, Annamaria Gelmi, Massimiliano Ghidini, Gianni, Lodovico Gierut, Sergio Gioielli, Robert James Hanrahan, I Miradebora, Luigina Iacuzzi, Gennaro Ippolito, Benedetta Jandolo, Evgenia Kaika, Alfonso Lentini, Silvia Lepore, Pino Lia, Oronzo Liuzzi, Maya López Muro, Gian Paolo Lucato, Yves Malbos (M), Paola Marcucci, Max Marra, Maria Grazia Martina, Anna Mascheretti, Anna Maria Matone, Massimo Medola, Alessia Meglio, Moreno Menarin, Luca Miti & Timmy, Fernando Montà, Riccarda Montenero, Giovanni Morgese, Giancarlo Nucci, Paolo Nutarelli, Cristiano Pallara, Linda Paoli, Stefano W. Pasquini, Fabrizio Pavolucci, Giuseppe Pellegrino, Salvatore Pepe, Salvatore Perchinelli, Silvano Pertone, Peter Hide 311065, Marisa Pezzoli, Riccardo Pezzoli, Bruno Pierozzi, Marzia Pollini, Veronique Pozzi Painé, Alessandra Pucci, Rosella Quintini, Gaetano Ricci, Sabina Romanin, Claudio Romeo, Serena Rossi, Fiorenzo Rosso, Lucia Sapienza, Carmela Sarcina, Antonio Sassu, Roberto Scala, Paolo Seghizzi, Elena Sellerio, Luigino Solamito, Alberto Sordi, Cristina Sosio, Lucia Spagnuolo, Antonio Spanedda, Oliana Spazzoli, Celina Spelta, Giovanni e Renata Strada, Piero Tacconi, Camilla Testori, Elsa Testori, Roberto Testori, Larisa Tinta, Elisa Traverso, Ilia Tufano, Emilio Vance, Silvia Venuti, Ada Eva Verbena, Alberto Vitacchio & Carla Bertola, Maria Grazia Zanmarchi, Rolando Zucchini JAPAN Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver, Tohei Mano, Keiichi Nakamura, Jack Seiei MALAYSIA Iszuan Ismail, Luqman Rosnan  MEXICO Diana Magallon, José Luis Alcalde Soberanes POLAND Andrej Dudek-Durer, Raphael Nadolny PORTUGAL Fernando Aguiar, Cecelia Chapman, Paulo Teles (BroTTas) ROMANIA Ovidiu Petca SERBIA Nenad Vučkvić SINGAPORE Gloria Khe SPAIN Sabela Baña, Pedro Bericat, Corporation Semiotica Galega, Francisco Gálvez (Deadwax), Rafael Gonzàlez, Maxima Maria Kinsky, Cesar Reglero, Jaume Rocamora, Valdor, Manuel Xio Blanco SWEDEN Henry Grahn Hermunen and Coleagues SWITZERLAND Ueli Sager THE NETHERLANDS Ever Arts, Ed Hanssen, Rob Komen, Hans Overvliet, Bert Vanden Berghe TURKEY Derya Avci USA Roberta Bartel, Boog (@RtH*Le), Joel Cohen (The Sticker Dude), John Held Jr., GX Jupitter-Larsen, Willie Marlowe, Catherine Mehrl Bennett, Nonlocal Variable, Joey Patrickt, Josh Ronsen, Adam Roussopoulos, Judith Skolnick, Lauryn Welch, Karen Wood, Reid Wood (State of Being).
 
The artworks received will be donated to the Tasso and Postal History Museum as part of the Ruggero Maggi Fund, titled “MAIL ART IN ACTION / FOR RUGGERO MAGGI”.
 
INFORMATION
 
Title: MAIL ART IN ACTION / FOR RUGGERO MAGGI
Curated by: Kappa and the Tasso and Postal History Museum
Venue: Tasso and Postal History Museum, Via Cornello 13, Camerata Cornello (BG)
Opening: 19 September 2026, 3.00 pm
Dates: 19 September – 29 October 2026
Opening days and hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10.00 am–12.30 pm and 2.30–6.00 pm
Notes:
21–23 October 2026: the exhibition will be open by prior booking only;
24 and 25 October 2026: the exhibition will be closed to allow for the reinstallation of the museum’s permanent collection.