B 13: ADMINISTRATION

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Bamboo, n. (malay bambu), any of a number of treelike tropical grasses having a springry, hollow, jointed stem, varying greatly in circumference and height; the stems are used for furniture, canes, etc. and the young shoots for food.

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What the Italian artist Ubaldo Giacomucci "really" meant when he used the malay word "bambu" for the first edition of his assembling magazine in 1981 is unclear - maybe he liked the association with the word bambi(-no) for this beginning magazine - it doesn't matter.

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Anyway, bambu is based on the original idea of combining a commonpress (every issue of the magazine edited by another artist) and an assembling (every participant sends as much (or identical) pages to the editor as necessary for his/her edition) - (can be 75, 100, 150 or more) - the number of pages of an edition depends on the number of participants) - commonpress (1977) was a concept of the Polish artist Pawel Petasz - the first assembling (1970) was started in the U.S.A. by Richard Kostelanetz and Henry James - assemblings became an inspiring method of publishing in the mail-art Netland.

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Through the years a lot of mail-art magazines used this "self-publishing channel": e.g. Abracadada (stamp art magazine) (U.S.A.); Arte Postale! (Italy); I.S.C.A. (U.S.A.); Afzet Palm Bank (Holland); Care (Holland); Collective Farm (U.S.A.); Mani Art (France); Clinch (Switzerland); Fuck (Italy); K.S. magazine (Canada); Thermos (U.S.A.); Caps.a (Spain); data file (U.S.A.); Necronomicon (Yugoslavia)); Tan-go (Poland); Nepp (Germany); Trax (Italy); Original Art magazine (Italy); ovum (uruguay); aArt-life (U.S.A.); Brain cell (Japan) ; Bambu (Italy) and many more - some of the mentioned magazines use(d) only a part of the concept - for instance, by asking a certain number of stickers or leaflets for their publications

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This bambu is a special anniversary edition, an anthology of networking communication, dreams, symbols & rituals - it became a ten years project started in 1982 & finished at the end of 1992 - it took 10 year to collect all these "administrative" items, signs & emotions but it must be true: <<13>> seems not to be a lucky number - my thanks to all the participants for their patience - the main problem was to find (for a human price) the box I had in mind - so this cardboard box was specially made for b 13 - also my thanks to all the magazines that announced the invitation to participate: e.g. Umbrella magazine; force mental; arte postale!; i.s.c.a; spiegelman's mail art rag; p.o.w.-art; afzet; tam-bulletin; mind's eye; n.d.; etc.

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B13 ==the theme is "administration"== has 106 participants from 19 countries - it's an edition of 135 copies - there are 100 complete originals and 35 ò originals - the reason: a lot of artists sent (by mistake?) more than 100 copies (with a maximum of 135) - some networkers worked together, but they are mentioned apart in the list of participants - for instance Paridaen & Libens (Belgium) - a few networkers (who did not have the possibility to send 100 copies) did only send one original with the request to multiply it (what i did free for these artists) - all the contributors received a free copy.

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Every Netlander is an assembling a collector of thousand dreams and illusions, of black & white information and colourful deformations - an accumulator of beautiful adventures & boring images - every networker is an archive - an assembler of poetical receipts, of spiritual waves from other horizons - he &/or she gathers the xerox-words & -works, compiles the received rubberstamp- & artistamp-sheets, the icons, simulacra and memories from other Netlanders - every (electronic) mail-artist is an administrator - = born to classify the mailed activities - & let it be assembled - & let this edition gives a new impulse to other netbeings to realize more bambu editions but don't give them the number 13 !


PS. if you have (extra) copies of bambu magazine that are not in the 42.292 archive, please inform me to make an exchange.


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