From honorary artistic committee for the three mail art exhibitions in Greece

Anna Boschi
My best wishes for your three exhibitions. I took part only in one mail art project (refugees) because since spring I was so busy in my exhibitions to not have time to participate.Excuse me, but I was with you with my soul.I shall send another work for the Biennal in Greece. What dimension, please? My best wishes and hoping to hear from you many greetings
Anna Boschi
Italy

Denis Charmot
Hi ThomaiHere a little text for you in english and in french in you don' t anderstend my translater.The mailart is a common artwork between the creative artist and the post office, a artwork which life even after its creation, an unimportant artwork. So unimportant that it intrigues, attracts, surprises. What pushes artists from around the world has to be interested suddenly in Argonautes and the Greek culture, with tightening the hand with people which they do not know, to send a smile to the visitors of this exposure? A question launched to a country which saw being born the largest philosophers and of which I think you pose too.Le mailart est une ouevre commune entre l’ artiste créateur et la poste, une oeuvre qui vie même après sa création, une oeurvre insignifiante. Tellement insignifiante qu’ elle intrigue, attire, surprend. Qu’ est ce qui pousse des artistes du monde entier a s’ intéresser subitement aux Argonautes et à la culture Grecque, à tendre la main à des gents qu’ ils ne connaissent pas, à envoyer un sourire aux visiteurs de cette exposition? Une question lancée à un pays qui a vu naître les plus grands philosophes et dont je pense vous vous posez aussi.
Best
Denis Charmot
FRANCE

Puneet Gupta
The Creative Network
A creative influx that really brings forward the artist in you. It is an amorphous international network, involving thousands of participants through the world though initially evolved between the 1950s and the 1990s. Though it's really not important that you have to be a great artist to be a part of mail art or get involved in this creative de-stressing exercise. Art is very subjective and it can be inspired with any event, place or even movements, including Dada and Fluxus. It is a very active movement which really needs a healthy flow of ideas and message between the participants.
I could go on and on, it is a use of your creativity. Mail art does not cost more than the postage. There is no size limit but it should be postable. There is no time limit on the creation, can be 5 minutes, it could take a week, it could take a whole month.
Mail art is an expressive medium to send arty things through mail. It is a fun filled means of communication that redefines the whole concept of sending messages. In this era of globalization being a part of a large global community is really important to share culture, lifestyle and interests with each other in a peaceful and creative way and mail art really gives that creative freedom.
best wishes for the project,
Puneet Gupta
Design Consultant( INDIA)

Dale Roberts
Dear ThomaiGreetings from CanadaIt is with great pleasure that I Congratulate you on the success yourefforts in seeing these Mail Art Projects realized. I wish youcontinued success as the project continues in the years ahead. We havewitnessed how Art and in particular Mail Art can bridge the gap ofdistance, language and other barriers. It is with efforts like thisthat the world is opened up and we can build a united global community.See you in the mail!
Dale Roberts
Canada

TIZIANA BARACCHI
MITO ANTICO E MODERNO
La Mail Art approda nella terra della Classicità e non dell’Accademismo. Un ritorno naturale in una terra che da sempre è da noi considerata la madre della nostra cultura. Ci accomuna un modo di pensare, riflettere, meditare, come la Mail Art accomuna i mailartisti nel network internazionale. Ormai la Mail Art è entrata nei musei ed è un’ espressione storicizzata di cui nessuno può negare l’esistenza. L’ Età dell’Oro è diventata Mito, la Mail Art è altrettanto Mitica.
ANCIENT AND MODERN MYTH
Mail Art lands in Greece, in the Country of classicism, not the one of academicism. It is a natural coming back in the land that has always been considered as the Mother of our culture. It is a way to think, to ponder, to meditate that connects us as Mail Art connects Mailartists in the International Network.
Mail Art has entered museums yet and has become an expression engraved in the history of art. The Golden Age became Myth and Mail Art is now a Myth too.
TIZIANA BARACCHI
Venezia Italy

Sidney Tome
I’m very happy to be part of so selected committee. I have a dream that all the people in the world willreceive and appreciate cards from unknown artistsliving in other side of earth. In this time, originalart will be free, outside museums and exhibitionrooms. Artists will be grateful in the moment childrensmile by their works. Yes, I’m very happy and grateful being part ofprojects in Greece, where all the western civilizationwas born. Thank you all the organization and Greek people forthis opportunity to show my works and from my mates ofthe whole world.
Sidney Tome
Brazil

International Honorary Artistic Committee

The honorary artistic committee for the three mail art exhibitions in Greece is the following:
1- The Argonauts
http://mailart-greece-argo.blogspot.com/
2- Refugee Solidarity Chain
http://mailart-greece-refugees.blogspot.com/
3- 1tst INTERNATIONAL MAIL ART BIENNALE IN GREECE
http://1st-mailart-greek-biennale.blogspot.com/
The committee was created in Greece and is formed by distinguished artist of mail art living in different countries. It was created in order to achieve an international contact through art and especially through mail art. This is the reason why a number of artists from many parts of the world were asked to participate in this exhibition.
The moral support that they offer is their participation in this exhibition and their assistance in the promotion of mail art in my country, as well as the protection of this project from individuals who may take advantage of it for non-artistic aims. I wish to thank all artists for their participation in this project.
The artists are the following:
International honorary artistic committee
Adamandia Kapsalis - U.S.A
Anna Boschi - Italy
Clemente Padin- Uruguay
Dale Roberts – Canada
Denis Charmot – France
Ivan Zemtsov - Russia
Mick Boyle – U.S.A.
Mim. Grammatikopoulos - Greece
Puneet Gupta – India
Paul Tiilila – Finland
Ryosuke Cohen -Japan
Sidney Tome -Brazil
Suzzlee Ibrahim – Malaysia
Tiziana Baracchi- Italy

1st international mail art biennale in Greece

Call 3

“1tst INTERNATIONAL MAIL ART BIENNALE IN GREECE”

We are a group of artists named “iconoplastes art group”. We have created and took part in a Central Unesco’s Project titled “My City- scenes and Sounds of my City”. We presented our city, Elassona, having Mount Olympus as the start and the end of our project, because we live in the shadow of this sacred mount.
The project is: http://unesco.sjsu.edu/
http://unesco.sjsu.edu/gallery/070121/kontou/index.html
We call you in the “1st International Mail Art Biennale in Greece”.
The selected artwork will be the exposing material for the creation of the “1st Museum of Postal Art” in Greece. We would like this museum to be founded in Elassona, the city where the 1st International mail art exhibition was held under the title: “Psychedelic” (producer: Ioanna Papachristou, coordinator- curator: Thomai Kontou).
Get into the site, se the project and let Olympus with its muses and Elassona, to create inner pictures. Send your works inspired from our city or your own city, your memories and way of living. In that way a lot of cities will co-exist, in this collection, through to the inspiration and soul of the artists.
Title: “Cities enclosed like fields where I used to live…..for Olympus, for Elassona, or the city everyone has in his mind and heart”
Media: painting, engraving, visual art, photo, artistamps.
Size: postcard, A3, A4.
No jury, no fee.
All works are going to be exhibited. The works will be the supporting material of the Museum. So they are not going to be returned.
Deadline: 20 November 2007.
Documents in: http://1st-mailart-greek-biennale.blogspot.com/
Exhibition coordinator- curator: Thomai Kontou (painter-mail artist)
For info: thomaikontou@gmail.com or uxa53@yahoo.gr
The exhibition will be held in a space that is going to be announced soon.
Send your work to:
Thomai Kontou
Xanthou 9
40200 Elassona
Greece
International honorary artistic committee
Adamandia Kapsalis - U.S.A
Anna Boschi - Italy
Clemente Padin- Uruguay
Dale Roberts – Canada
Denis Charmot – France
Ivan Zemtsov - Russia
Mick Boyle – U.S.A.
Mim. Grammatikopoulos - Greece
Puneet Gupta – India
Paul Tiilila – Finland
Ryosuke Cohen -Japan
Sidney Tome -Brazil
Suzzlee Ibrahim – Malaysia
Tiziana Baracchi- Italy
For photos of mound Olympus get in the site:
http://www.elassona.com.gr/m_photografies/olympos/1/index.php
http://www.elassona.com.gr/m_photografies/elassona/1/index.php

*the text for UNESCO’s project: TITLE A tribute to Elassona “The city I loved, enclosed…like fields where I used to live”Elassona is a town situated on the foot of Mount Olympus, the Greek sacred mountain. It is a town that has been built 4.500 years ago and it is known as the “White Town” of the Homeric era. It is also white deeply in our heart and brain, because it is our own hometown, the place we were born and lived and where as own beloved people lived. We have attempted an artistic approach of our town having in mind the verse of the poet N. A. Aslanoglou about Elassona: “…its houses are spreading conceitedly in the plain” among these houses there are youth memories, secret corners, ruins, abandoned cars, old factories. But there is also the new life portrayed through, traditional feasts in the square, through old and new habits, the cultural buildings, and the litany of the Virgin Mary’s icon, the artist’s atelier and his lonely course. Evenings with friends, music and dreams. “Innocence and faith”. We consist a team of painters, photographers and university students. Our common point a view is our love for Elassona. Have a nice trip in our town. Iconoplastes Art Group. (Republication from republication from UNESCO’s site)

Refugee Solidarity Chain

Call 2
Title: “Refugee Solidarity Chain”
Call for mail art

We call on the artists of the world to participate with their work in the mail art project “Refugee Solidarity Chain”.

Help us raise awareness on the needs of refugees and asylum seekers in Greece. Be a ring in the Refugee Solidarity Chain with your work and help us raise funds to support these people!
Refugee is “a person who due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country[1]”.
Refugees are not immigrants who, legally or not, leave their countries voluntarily in order to improve their standard of living. Refugees arrive in Greece in a state of desperation, often abandoning their families in order to escape the danger and having lived through traumatic experiences, having seen family members, friends, and co-workers imprisoned or even executed.
Moreover, they deal with very serious survival problems, because they are deprived of funds, familial and social ties, and communication due to linguistic and cultural differences.
The support of these people is the main idea behind this project, organized by the Greek Council for Refugees (http://www.gcr.gr/ ), a Non Governmental Organization founded in 1989 to provide legal and psychosocial aid to refugees and asylum seekers who live in Greece. The Union of past refugees from “Black Sea- Pontus” of Elassona responded to the Council’s call for help, with the sensitivity and awareness of what really means to be a refugee, as they also were refugees some years ago.
Please send us your work with:
Dimensions: 10 x 15, A5, A4
Material: painting, engraving, digital art, artistic photo.
No returns, no fees.
All work be exposed, in Art Gallery in Athens
Doc. to all
Deadline: 20 November 2007
All works must be sent to:
Dr. Karipidis Giannis
6 Oktovriou 113
40200 Elassona – Greece
E-mail: kaelde@yahoo.gr

The painter & mail artist Thomai Kontou is the art director and curator of this project.
E-mail: uxa53@yahoo.gr
thomaikontou@gmail.gr

Web Exhibition: http://mailart-greece-refugees.blogspot.com/

There will be an exhibition of all the art works, and all funds raised by the sales will be donated to GCR, for support to the refugees who live in Greece.
You will receive more detailed information about the date and the place of the exhibition in the coming weeks.

For the support of Exhibition was created an artistic committee from Greeks mail artists:
Thomai Kontou
Ioanna Papachristou
Galatos Stavros
Anna Filini
Regas Makropoulos
Efi Bizou Chlorokosta
Aristotelis Triantis
Helen Baziotou
Thomas Liolios
Nikos Delis
Christos Papanikolaou
Gioula Gathi
Kostas Varnas
Vasilis Prappas
Kostas Evaggelatos
Nikos Kelesis
International honorary artistic committee
Adamandia Kapsalis - U.S.A
Anna Boschi - Italy
Clemente Padin- Uruguay
Dale Roberts – Canada
Denis Charmot – France
Ivan Zemtsov - Russia
Mick Boyle – U.S.A.
Mim. Grammatikopoulos - Greece
Puneet Gupta – India
Paul Tiilila – Finland
Ryosuke Cohen -Japan
Sidney Tome -Brazil
Suzzlee Ibrahim – Malaysia
Tiziana Baracchi- Italy
Greek Council for Refugees
http://www.gcr.gr/default.asp?pid=1&la=2
http://www.gcr.gr/default.asp?pid=1&la=1
Leto Marinou
E-mail: fundraiser@gcr.gr
Tel: 0030 210 3320053

[1] This definition was adopted internationally on July 28th 1951 and was put in writing in the treaty since known as the Convention of Geneva “relating to the refugee status”. The convention was amended with the New York protocol of July 31st 1967 and ever since is enforced intact.

THE ARGONAUTS

CALL 1
THE ARGONAUTS

In 1200 B.C., in the end of the Copper Age and the beginning of the Iron Age, 52 heroes of the Ancient Greece embarked on “Argo”, the biggest and most famous ship of the ancient times, and traveled from the port of Colhis (ancient Iolkos) to an eastern shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea, known nowadays as the city of Tosis (Former Russian Republic of Georgia). The purpose of the journey was to bring back to the King of Colhis, Pelias, and the Golden Fleece, which was guarded by a dragon. According to the ancient legend the owner of the Fleece gained immortality.
The journey hided extreme danger and surprise for the Argonauts, as they had to confront nature, hostile nations and as well as the range of some of the Gods.

In our days, everyone travels on a ship, our own Argo, chasing an utopia, a dream, crossing the Symplegades (Clashing Islands), the difficulties in life. Some may return to Colhis, as others may lost their way and experience only the joy of the effort. What counts is the journey, the struggle and the dream. We invite you to experience this journey together.

The revival of the ancient Greek myth is a fact, as on June 2007 a detailed copy of Argo with 52 rowers will embark from the port of Volos (Ancient Iolkos), following the same route with the ancient Argo.
The Cultural Club “Xarta of Culture”, http://www.xarta.gr/, supporting the expedition has already produced a great musical play titled “Argonauts”, performed by the internationally famous singer Nena Venetsanou, on the music of Giannis Tantsis and the lyrics of Giorgos Tsitroulis.
We are inviting you to participate with a painting of your choice and inspiration (a landscape on A4 canvas) to symbolize the sail of the ship, which will be attached to a pre-sketched ship of the same dimensions, or creates something of the fable in paper or cardboard A4
Your paintings will be exposed in the premises of the music halls where the concerts of the “Argonauts” will take place, in different parts of the planet, as a form of “moving expedition”.
Forty (40) of those paintings, selected by the Artistic Committee, will be included in the flyer of the cd “Argonauts” (distributed on 2007 – 2008).

Afterwards the end of exhibitions, the artworks will be given as donation, in museum, that will be announced at an early date.
Title: Argonauts.
Material: painting, drawing artist stamp in cloth
or on paper with any media
Size: A4 or 9h10cm in cloth
All work will be exhibited.
No Jury, no returns, no fee.
Documentations to all.
On line documentation:
http://mailart-greece-argo.blogspot.com/
Deadline until 20 November 2007

Art director – initiator –curator of the project:
Thomai Kontou, painter-mailartist
Auxiliary: Regas Makropoulos, painter- musician
For info: mailto:thomaikontou@gmail.com
Send your work to:

Thomai Kontou
Xanthou 9
40200 Elassona
Greece

Please draw, paint, or stick the flag of your country on the envelope.
If you draw the Argo put the flag of your country on her.

Please send your work by post not by e-mail.
Write your name, address and your e-mail clearly.
Artistic greek committee

Thomai Kontou
Regas Makropoulos
Ioanna Papachristou
Anna Filini
Aristotelis Triantis
Efi Bizou Chlorokosta
Galatos Stavros
Helen Baziotou
Thomas Liolios
Nikos Delis
Christos Papanikolaou
Gioula Gathi
Kostas Varnas
Vasilis Prappas
Kostas Evaggelatos
Nikos Kelesis
International honorary artistic committee
Adamandia Kapsalis - U.S.A
Anna Boschi - Italy
Clemente Padin- Uruguay
Dale Roberts – Canada
Denis Charmot – France
Ivan Zemtsov - Russia
Mick Boyle – U.S.A.
Mim. Grammatikopoulos - Greece
Puneet Gupta – India
Paul Tiilila – Finland
Ryosuke Cohen -Japan
Sidney Tome -Brazil
Suzzlee Ibrahim – Malaysia
Tiziana Baracchi- Italy