Postcards and Mail Art at Immanence Art Centre in Paris

The Immanence Art Center in Paris is hosting an extensive exhibition on mail art and artist postcards from 22. November until December 19, 2025. More than two hundred artists from around thirty countries are involved, which gives an idea of how widespread and international mail art networks have become since the 1960s.¹

 

 

In an age dominated by mass communications and rapid exchanges via email, this exhibition focuses on a medium that seems almost anachronistic today: the postcard. As a memento, a carrier of personal messages, and a field of experimentation for the avant-garde, it played an important role for decades. The early avant-garde developed forms of artistic postal communication that were later revived in mail art.²

 

About the exhibition Cartes Postales et Mail-Art in Paris

The exhibition presents a wide range of artist postcards and shows the diversity of aesthetic positions and historical contexts. It is complemented by an open call: during a specified period, artists were able to send in postcards without pre-selection and without a jury. This open approach ties in with the self-image of Mail Art as established by early practitioners such as Ray Johnson.³

Mail art offered a free, often subversive form of expression beyond state control, especially in times of political repression. Envelopes and postcards became artistic media that could be poetic, rebellious, or both at the same time. The concept of the Eternal Network⁴ developed by Robert Filliou provides a central theoretical framework for this: art as global exchange, as social practice, and as an open communication structure.

Against this background, Maïten Bouisset asks the question: “Is mail art an art for initiates or an art that initiates?”

Mail art is both a practice that demands participation and a movement that generates its own history, its own networks, and its own form of knowledge. Like the postcard itself, Mail Art makes contemporary art accessible. It combines artistic work with an experience that is universal: sending or receiving a postcard. This everyday access opens a window to art that is personal, communal, and spontaneous. At the same time, the approach reflects Immanence’s self-image, which explicitly understands cultural accessibility as a social task⁵.

The exhibition presents key figures in Mail Art such as Ray Johnson, Klaus Groh, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Robert Filliou, Ken Friedman, and Mohammed alias Plinio Mesciulam, as well as important contemporary artists such as Hanne Darboven, Christo, and Joseph Beuys. Representatives of the second generation, such as Lutz Wohlrab and György Galántai, as well as artists active today, such as Susanne and Lars Schumacher, Hans Braumüller, Jürgen O. Olbrich, Gerald Jatzek, and Gerald Naar, demonstrate how vibrant and diverse this art form has remained.

List of participants

Martine Aballéa, Peter Abajkovics, Anne Abou, Frédéric Acquaviva, Démosthène Agrafiotis, Fernando Aguiar, Jean-Michel Alberola, Christian Alle, Elisabeth Amblard, Giovanni Anceschi, AooA, Karel Appel, Argillia, Arman, Atelier Populaire, Enrico Baj, Sabela Baña, Melanie Bäreis, Vittore Baroni, Paul Bazin, Francesca Bella, Valérie Belin, John Bennett, Ottmar Bergmann, Pedro Bericat, Joseph Beuys, Daphné Bitchatch, Caroline Bittermann, Julien Blaine, Sarah Bodman, Christian Boltanski, Mario Borillo, Jean-François Bory, Daniel C. Boyer, BP (Renaud Layrac, Frédéric Pohl, Richard Bellon), Hans Braumüller, George Brecht, Theo Breuer, Marcel Broodthaers, Camille Bryen, Dmitry Bulatov, Alfonso Caccavale, Agnès Caffier, Bernard Calet, Angela Caporaso, Isabelle Caraés, Bettina Carl, Christiane Carré, Orianne Castel, Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Cozette de Charmoy, Roberta Chiarella, Bruno Chiarlone, Paella Chimicos, Henri Chopin, Mario Cobas, Bob Cobbin, Joel Cohen, Michel Collet, William Copley, Michel Corfou, Periklis Costopoulos, Réjean F. Côté (Circulaire 132), Jean-Claude Courval, DADANAUTIK, Daniel Daligand, Hanne Darboven, Jean Degottex, Ma Desheng, Erik Dietmann, DOC(K)S (revue), Paul Dorn, Ferruccio Dragoni, Jerry Dreva, Sved Uwe Dressler, François Dufrêne, Jean-Jacques Dumont, Leif Elggrenn, Öyvind Fahlström, Bartolomé Ferrando, Bernadette Février, Luc Fierens, Robert Filliou, Ken Friedman, Thorsten Fuhrmann, Marco Furia, György Galántai, Christophe Galatry, Jakob Gautel, Antonia Gennimata, Paul-Armand Gette, Gilbert & George, Liliane Giraudon, John Giorno, Michel Giroud, Ferdinand Glenk, Yves Gobart, Susan Gold, Guillaume Goutal, Klaus Groh, Géraldine Guilbaud, Brion Gysin, Richard Hamilton, Sten Hanson, Raoul Hausmann, Bernard Heidsieck, John Held Jr., Karl Horst Hödicke, Risto Holopainen, Joël Hubaut, Joseph W. Huber, Alice Hutchins, Olivier-Franck Huyghe, Dorothy Iannone, Katrin Jaquet, Gerald Jatzek, Jef Aérosol, Birger Jesch, Holly Johnson, Ray Johnson, Asger Jorn, Ana Jotta, Detlef Kappis, Jason Karaïndros, Alison Keenan, Ellsworth Kelly, Katia Kelm, Alison Knowles, Arthur Køpcke, Jannis Kounellis, Serafine Christine Kratze, Inès P. Kubler, Hans Jürgen Küster, Susanna Lakner, François Lagarde, Matthieu Laurette, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Stéphane Lecomte, William Lee, Jean Le Gac, Jean-Claude Lefevre, Ben Leenen, Michael Leigh, Bob Lens, Siggi Liersch, Eloise Lifton, Andre Lisangi, Virginie Loreau, Gaëlle Lucas, Henri Maccheroni, Jackson Mac Low, George Maciunas, Brice Marden, Richard Martel, Olive Martin, M. Chat, Katerina Mandarik, Chris Marker, Annette Messager, MH//ANTIPODE, Monica Michelotti, Wanda Mihuleac, Stephan J. Mitterwierser, Susanne Mitterwieser, Alex Mlynarcik, Mohammed (aka Plinio Mesciulam), Sabine Mohr, Malcom Morley, Côme Mosta-Heirt, Martine Mougin, Tania Mouraud, Massimo Mori, Valérie Mréjen, Gabriele Müller, Christa Näher, Gerald Naar, Keiichi Nakamura, Seigne Ndiaye, Seth Nicemail, Boris Nieslony, Andrew Maximilian Niss, Guttorm Nordö, Zorica Obradovic, Jürgen O. Olbrich, Pauline Oliveros, Mathilde Ollivier, Yoko Ono, Jeremie Otternbach, Asma Ounine, Marco Pachetti, Clemente Padin, Nam June Paik, Bogdan Pavlovic, Claude Pélieu, Rémy Pénard, Ben Patterson, Pierre Petit, Ségolène Perrot, Horvath Piroska, Bruno Pierozzi, Pete Pistol, PLG, Hugo Pontes, Morgane Porcheron, Plonk & Replonk, Rittiner & Gomez, Gabriel Pomerand, Hugo Pontes, Jérôme Rappanello, Serge-Henri Rodin, Yvonne Roeb, Robic Roesz, Dieter Rot(h), Francis van Rossem, Edward Ruscha, Robert Ryman, Carmela Sarcina, Abderrazak Sarenco, Antonio Sassu (Gruppo Sinestetico), Roberto Scala, Michel Seuphor, Takahachi Shohachiro, Lars Schumacher, Susanne Schumacher, Schmuck (Martha Hellion et Felipe Ehrenberg), Renate Schweizer, Daniela Scurtulescu, Sorin Scurtulescu, Esther Ségal, Tanabe Shin, Adrian Sorin Sinescu, Judith Skolnick, Christine Smilovici, Snappy, Alain Snyers, Spike Spence, Daniel Spoerri, Klaus Staeck, Giovanni e Renata StraDA DA, Cannelle Tanc, Paul-André Tanc, Irina Tall, Ulrich Tarlatt, Romain Théobald, Miroslav Tichy, Tofu, Tonelli, Roland Topor, Endre Tót, Horst Tress, Richard Tuttle, Ben Vautier, Michel Della Vedova, Valentine Verhaeghe, Martine Viale, Christophe Viard, Jacques de la Villeglé, Frédéric Vincent, Yoshi Wada, Eric Watier, Robert Watts, Rainer Wieczorek, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Henri van Zanten, Bettina Weiss, Tom Westermann, Lutz Wohlrab, Gil Wolman, Reid Wood, Tamara Wyndham, Dana Wyse, Max Wyse, La Monte Young and many others…

About Immanence in Paris

Immanence is committed to democratizing access to culture by making the diversity of contemporary artistic creation accessible to all. Cultural participation counteracts social inequalities, discrimination, arbitrariness, and isolation. Immanence is supported by the City of Paris, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, and the DRAC Île-de-France, the regional cultural authority of the Ministry of Culture.

Footnotes

1. In the 1960s, mail art developed into an international network that bridged physical distances through artistic exchange.

2. Dada, Fluxus, and Lettrism used the postcard as an artistic medium, thereby paving the way for structures that Mail Art would later draw upon.
3. The principle of open exchange was established by early protagonists such as Ray Johnson and has remained central to this day.
4. With his concept of the Eternal Network (1968), Robert Filliou defined a model of global art communication that transcended institutional boundaries.
5. Immanence explicitly sees its work as a contribution to cultural accessibility, thus reflecting the social openness of Mail Art.

Further sources on mail art

• International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA)
  https://iuoma-network.ning.com
  International, active network of mail art artists, with project archives and historical discussions.
• Ray Johnson Estate
  https://www.rayjohnsonestate.com
  Official archive of mail art pioneer Ray Johnson.

• Artpool Art Research Center – Eternal Network 
  https://artpool.hu/Network/ 
  Comprehensive historical source on Robert Filliou, the “Eternal Network,” and international mail art structures.
• Tate – Fluxus (Art Term) 
  https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/fluxus 
  Basic overview of Fluxus as an international network that developed experimental forms of exchange and provided important impetus for Mail Art.
• John Held Jr. papers relating to mail art, 1947–2018 (Archives of American Art)
  https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/john-held-papers-relating-to-mail-art-6273 
  The complete Mail Art estate of artist, archivist, and chronicler John Held Jr., with digitized documents spanning several decades.

Opening hours

Thursday to Saturday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment
Subway: Montparnasse, Falguière, Duroc
Bus: 91/95/96
21 Avenue du Maine
75015 Paris

www.art-immanence.org