THE ADMINISTRATION CENTRE - 42.292

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The Administration Centre - 42.292 is a living archive of "communicationism", of the postal rituals and communicative gestures of the mail-art netland/ /it is based on the democratic principle that "every" piece of mail (envelopes, postcards, letters,...) is meaningful in the socio-cultural context of the mail-art circuit - so every artist or non-artist is treated with the same care - the idealistic purpose was and is to store up the entire narration of what happened by classifying "all" the results of mail-activities received from the eternal netland - but every archive will tell the true story of its own web.

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1995, the whole collection comprises original works and/or information of (plus or minus) 5.000 networkers from over 60 countries - the classification is in alphabetical order and per country - every artist has one or more files and/or box files (if a lot of works are present)/ /individual numbers refer to an accurate index-system, so that everything can be found easily.

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The administration archive is divided into separate units: artistamps, ar-tists'books, artpaper, assemblings, audio-art, catalogues, computer-art, copy-art, fax art, graffiti, magazines, mail-art, performances, postcards, posters, rubberstamp-art, small-press publications, video-art, visual poetry, etc.

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Over the years a lot of mail-artists and those interested came to Wellen for a visit at the administration centre - from abroad there were artists such as Banana, Baroni, Bloch, Devens, Dresscher, Dudek-Durer, Formentini, Graf Haufen, Held jr., Janssen, Olbrich, Oliveira, Perneczky, Ruch, Stake, Taylor, Ti-mar, Kustermann, Lor
Enzi, van de Hoef, van der Heyden, van Dijk, and so on - several students used documents of the archive for research.

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Since the foundation of the Administration Centre in 1978, a lot of exhibitions with works from the archive have been realized at different places, E.G. "mail-art party", gemeentehuis, Leopoldsburg, 1979; gallery Ruimte Z, Antwerp, 1980 (with emphasis on indirect correspondence and mail-art by children); I.C.
C., Antwerp, '80; VUB, Brussels, '81; de Warande, Turnhout, '81; CIAP, Hasselt, '82; de Brakke Grond, Amsterdam, '83; Stedelijk Museum, Tienen, '84; Cultural Centre, Valkenswaard, '85; gallery Il Ventuno, Hasselt, '86/'88; Dominikanenkerk, Maastricht, '88; Cultural Centre, Genk, '89; Cultural Centre, Heusden-Zolder, '91/'93; Public Libraries of Hasselt, Zonhoven, Heusden-Zolder, Bilzen, Genk, '91-'92; Zoo, Antwerp, '92; Cultural Centre Anderlecht, '92; PTT Museum, The Hague '92; de Fabriek; Eindhoven, '93.

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attention: don't throw it away - problems to store your superfluous mail-art related things (old or new envelopes, postcards, documents, magazines, etc.) - don't burn it - send it to:
The Administration Centre - 42.292 / mail-art archive / Guy Bleus
P.O.Box 43/3830 Wellen/Belgium
Phone & fax : (+)32-12-74.14.15 (night and day)
E-mail address : guybleus@mailart.be

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Netland archives are poetical cemetaries of memories, activities and curiosities - in a memory of the unknown netlanders, they file the present for posterity.