IP: When
& How did you get involved with Mail-Art?
RJ: I actually documented that with a complete book:
https://www.academia.edu/6739422/25_YEARS_in_Mail_Art_overview_for_Ruud_Janssens_activities_2005
the book is available for free and contains all the details. Maybe read it first and then come with specific questions for details?
IP: Can
you explain the history/conception of the IUOMA (International Union of
Mail-Artists)
RJ: That has been documenten quite well on:
https://iuoma-network.ning.com/
Somehow people always think that if a group of artists work together that then there must automatically be some kind of organisation that coordinates it all. Well, in mail art there are many groups working together. These groups themselves also work together, but there is NO organisation that arranges all the things that go on in the mail art network. The I.U.O.M.A. is the Union that mail artists can become a member of. The Union has no rules. Everybody who is active in mail art and hears about the Union can become a member just by saying so.
In 1988 the idea of the IUOMA was born. I invented this name and made forms for people to become a member of this (fictive) union. About 300 mail artists reacted in a year, and official membership cards were made, even a official Union Magazine was published. Anybody who was a member of the Union could also claim a special function within the Union.
Even today, people still join the Union. And somehow it gives power, to say that YOU are a member of the International Union too. It is just the center for archiving all the things that are going on. But I am not in control of the Union. I just invented it. And to make it official, I made myself General-President of this Union. Sure was impressive when I travelled to the USSR in 1991 and went to visit some friends there who were also members of this Union........
IP: What
is your Name?
RJ: Did
I understand the question right? My name is Ruud Janssen. Some people call me
with other names, but I am quite happy with this one. My birthname was Rudolf, so that is written
in the official documents.
RJ: When you consider I started with
connecting with the network in 1980 and was writing letters as a child in the
70-ies, you will realize that there are a lot of memories. A favourite one is a
difficult selection because The memories of the past are growing with every
year that passes by.
RJ: The
future of ART is always great. New people come every year and are creative
enough to be inspired about what is going on in the world and react to that in
a creative way.
The future of Mail is another matter. The original network started with correspondance of letters, postcards, and even objects sent by mail.
Later on
the FAX arrived, the E-mail, and the HTTP-protocol in 1993 made all these
websites possible. Is it still Mail?
It depends on the definition. When you transform it to Communication Art, it has a bright future. It you are a purist and you insist on a postage stamp being put on the work, well, you have a problem since the postal system is collapsing when it comes to the individual communication. Commercial activities still stimulate the postal services, but the Posta Office if far gone. Only the transport of objects will survive. The communication of letters, words, images and videos, that all has gone digital and you can send it from anywhere to anyone that is connected to the WWW. I tend to be a purist, and only traditional mail is what mattered. We are now in a new millennium where the digital impact will need a reaction from artists in a different way.
RJ: In the year I started with these mail-interviews I realized I only knew very little details about the people I was communicating with. I have read some interviews others did and decided to go for a search for more information. In the 90-ies also Internet and e-mail was starting to grow. So I made the concept that questions and answers could be sent in any communication-form choosen bij the sender or receiver. That meant some questions were even asked by telephone, and some answers where handed over when I was meeting the interviewed person. The communication-process was part of the mail-interview.
The project itself grew. I started
with one interview. And because the time-factor was involved, I had time for
starting several interviews simultaneously. It was an intense period of
searching for information, but also I realize the documenting of the complete
process. First with small interview booklets in small editions where
mail-artists could ask for, Later also on websites and in bookform.
The
essence was I wanted to gather more information that wasn’t there. I wanted to
get the people that I was communicating with and were out there. I felt I had a shortage of information and
needed to will the void with data also for the network.
In the
bookforms the newsletter that was made during that period is also published.
Lots of information in the mail-interview. Some people outside the network even
found it worth wile to write a thesis about the project.
Sadly no. Last year the postal office made some changes and moved the location of my P.O. Box 1055 to the outher sides of the city. It means I couldn't just 'walk by', but I hade to travel by bicycle for 15 minutes to collect the mail in the P.O. Box.
I tried that for some months, but then came the next problem. The price to pay for the Postal Office box went up again quite a bit, and more then 300 euro's is way too much to have that service. So I quite the P.O. Box somewhere in February 2025.
Also the Domainname www.iuoma.org got way to expensive, so it is another thing I had to let go, When you get older you realize you don't need to continue all there is, and you are more at ease in taking the right decisions.
Yes, sometimes I get q trequest that someone wants to buy a drawing. When we agree on which one, the price and the sendingconditions, the sale is made.
I don't actively seek out to sell them, but when I don;t have too much emotional connection to a drawing someone else may buy it and collect it or hang it on a wall.
