IM98 Calendar-Catalogue-Documentation

[anna balint]

[The Incongrous Meetings project was announced on the Syndicate list in 
1998, now I discovered this report on the pages of vortice argentina, it's 
never too late a.b.]

THIS IS THE E-MAIL VERSION
OF THE IM98 CALENDAR-CATALOGUE-DOCUMENTATION
(a.k.a. Arte Postale! #81, a networking magazine of the Ethereal Open 
Network, January-June 1999)

IM98: A YEAR OF INCONGRUOUS MEETINGS
a concise report by Vittore Baroni from E.O.N. headquarters

How to join and cement together in a shared spirit of "networking 
community" the thousands of individuals
that build up and inhabit the underground channels of independent and 
counter-cultural communication
(zine-makers, net-surfers, artists, poets, musicians, ranters, etc.)? An 
operative model developed inside the
international mail art network exactly for this purpose is the so called 
"decentralized congress", or an
unlimited series of open meetings with the same theme, freely organized by 
various people in different parts
of the world, usually in the course of one year. The first big 
Decentralized Mail Art Congress of 1986,
promoted from Switzerland by the artists Günther Ruch and H.R. Fricker, 
consisted of about 80 different
sessions that involved over 500 participants from 25 countries, with photos 
and reports from the various
sessions gathered by Ruch in a 160 pages catalogue. Six years later, in 
1992, Fricker coordinated a new
Decentralized Worldwide Networker Congress, that tried to broaden the 
playing field by involving also
people not directly related to the mail art network, with a final count of 
over 250 sessions and a de-luxe
book-documentation produced by another Swiss artist, Peter Kaufmann. Add 
another six years (6+6+6) and
we come to 1998: as a mail art veteran I felt it was the right time to 
revive once again the feeling of unity of
the networking community, so I proposed another one year project, this time 
centered not on the "academic"
concept of congress but on the much more flexible and easygoing one of 
meeting, to which I added the
enigmatic title of incongruous. This was done to add a contradictory and 
unforeseeable element to the
project, stimulating all kinds of reactions to a term defined in the 
dictionary as "lacking harmony or
agreement; not corresponding to what is right, proper or reasonable; 
inappropriate…". I believe that
networking activities, just like good sentimental relationships, need some 
friction and controversy now and
then to function at best, not always smiles and back-slapping.

So 1998 became, at least in certain ethereal paths of the underground 
creative circles, the year of
Incongruous Meetings (IM98), not without an implied tribute to Ray Johnson, 
the "father" of mail art sadly
disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1995, who decades ago used to 
invite members of his New
York Correspondence School and also total strangers to "meetings" and 
"nothings" (events where, in
contraposition with the early "happenings", often nothing at all happened). 
The figure of Ray Johnson
spontaneously became a sort of subterranean leit-motiv for the IM98 
project, as his influence and distant
presence was felt in several occasions: in particular, on 13th January 
1998, three years to the day when the
american artist jumped from a Long Island bridge into the cold waters 
below, several actions took place, with
large groups of people in Argentina and Spain gathering at the same time 
(9.13 pm) in front of local Post
Offices wearing bunny masks, and the music group Le Forbici di Manitù 
playing live A Song About Ray in
front of a Post Office in Italy, while replicating a street installation of 
Johnson’s moticos.

The mechanism that permitted the development of IM98 is very simple: 
everyone was free to organize an
incongruous meeting for whatever reason they wanted, choosing a day or 
period of the year, and sending to
my E.O.N. address (only acting as coordination centre) a printed form that 
was distributed in Fall 1997 with
the first IM98 invite, filled with the information about the When, Where, 
What, Who and Why of the intended
meeting. All the "convocations" received were then reprinted and widely 
circulated in bi-monthly lists, via
snail and e-mail, thanks also to the kind hospitality of various magazines 
(Anna, Boek861, Open World,
P.O.Box, Umbrella, etc.) and web sites, as well as to the disinterested 
help of artists like Keith Bates (who
printed and distributed a large number of IM98 art tickets) and Joel Cohen 
(The Sticker Dude), high patron of
the networking arts with his Ragged Edge Press, who created various 
leaflets, stickers and rubber stamps for
IM98. The original invite and all the subsequent printed propaganda always 
emphasized the
free-and-open-to-all nature of this "no copyright" (and no sponsorship, no 
funds, no profit) project. The aim
was really just to try once more to escape the repetitiousness of the mail 
art invitation-show-catalogue
routine, to go for something different, wilder and hopefully warmly global. 
Because of the ironical
formulation of the invite, I expected many people to see it as just a big 
joke, but the "incongruous" angle
made also possible the painless inclusion of all kinds of misunderstandings 
and extravagant reactions. If the
invite had inspired just one angry letter, one single incongruous meeting 
or one burst of laughter, I would
have been equally happy.

Luckily, I got a trunk-load of answers, launching or documenting meetings 
of all sizes, based on the most
different motivations, from the comical-surreal (a walking meeting next to 
a public urinal on April 1st to
remember Monty Python’s "Ministry of Silly Walks") to the socially 
committed (street actions in Buenos
Aires for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights), from the poetic-onyrical
(collective recording of a midyear’s dream) to urban guerrilla (kidnapping 
of garden dwarves), passing
through all kinds of sheerly incongruous do-togethers: instigation at a 
group sea bath without underpants,
collective orgasms, mailing of fake bomb-packages or written banknotes, a 
34-hours no-stop reading of
Joyce’s Ulysses (in Danish…), a guided musical journey through Père 
Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, various
attempts at communication with cows, fishes and turkeys, etc.etc. Some 
contributions are visually stunning
pieces, like the series of portrait-stamps designed by buZ blurr after 
photos taken at meetings, or the
snapshots sent by B. Saved of railroad tracks with a tribute to Jack 
Kerouac written in white marker-pen
along the rails, or the photos of different people diving in mid-air to 
commemorate Yves Klein’s famous jump
into the void, and so on and on.

Networking projects always searched for the right balance between minimum 
cost (in terms of time, energies
and money) and maximum effect. The convocations arrived at E.O.N. exceeded 
by far the number of
documentations of held meetings. Some meetings have probably gone desert 
(what’s more deliciously
incongruous?), but even as mere ideas, most convocations are nevertheless 
stimulating. Some meetings and
actions would have been probably carried out even without the IM98 
umbrella, as various people saw it fit to
participate with whatever projects they had been working on at the time. 
The IM98 concept was flexible
enough to allow also for this kind of "double-use": "nothing and everything 
may happen at an Incongruous
Meeting". As far as documentations are concerned, there were not too many 
publications produced as
"decentralized catalogues", but some of them are very nice indeed: Our Lady 
of Latex from Illinois sent inside
a round plastic box a beautiful circular booklet, with spiral texts and a 
real coin glued on a cork leaf; Alan
Turner sent his documentation of "McMeeting" inside a real McDonald 
potato-chips bag transformed into
an envelope; Reed Altemus and Pete Fischer produced a wonderful copy-art 
limited edition portfolio with the
visual bits collected during their cooperative "Incongruous West" trip; 
Burt Warren from Australia sent a
video of his IM98 audio performance; Angela & Peter Netmail and H.R. 
Fricker, as proof of their separate "To
the Top" meetings, sent mail dutifully post-marked from the top of the Alps 
mountains; Birger Jesch made a
thick catalogue of his "Spring Fullmoon" project that shows people in 
different countries meeting to place a
ceramic tile in a public place; Anna Banana distributed a specially 
conceived "Incongruous Evaluation
Form" to the visitors of an Artistamps show and collected 26 sets of 
answers to questions like "would you
rather lick the artist or his/her stamps?"...

There were small, big, odd, normal, physical, conceptual, imaginary 
meetings. Sometimes a postcard signed
by a number of people would be the only trace of an impromptu meeting. In 
other cases, small crowds would
assemble to watch performances or have group photographs taken, like in the 
occasion of the various
exhibitions at Angela & Peter Netmail’s "Incongruous Open Air Gallery" in 
Minden, Germany. Some
meetings only took place "virtually" in the mail, like the series of 
postcard collaborations collected in Japan
by Keiichi Nakamura under the title "With You 2", or a add-to-and-pass-on 
sheet for "Incongruous
Meetings by Mail" circulated by Anna Boschi in Italy. The most unexpected 
mailing of all was anyway a big
envelope from Brazil, sent by Angela Maria Ferrari Darin(?) and containing 
17 little unmounted oil paintings
on canvas (some figurative, some abstract) with an accompanying 
hand-written letter very difficult to
decipher. I did not know what these paintings had to do with IM98, but I 
loved so much the incongruity of
this meeting between networking and traditional art that I decided to push 
it even further by sharing the
original works with all of you (a detail glued in each copy of the paper 
version of this catalogue): I hope the
authors will understand the spiritual character and respectful well-meaning 
of this action!

At least thirty per cent of the IM98 activities have taken place through or 
thanks to Internet and e-mail, and
this is significant of the new direction undertaken by the mail art 
network. The process is irreversible, and
personally I do not see why snail and electronic mail cannot coexist and 
support reciprocally one another
instead of going in separate directions. Of a particular "technological" 
interest were some meetings carried
out through fax and Internet: Dmitry Bulatov in Russia organized an 
"e-mail/fax-m at rathone IM98",
exhibiting all the communications received on the trees of a public park 
(he also made a large band with the
words "Incongruous Meetings" and mixed with it into a large crowd holding 
demonstration signs in Cyrillic);
Charles François from Belgium proposed a meeting with homonyms to be found 
through Internet search
engines (a British participant discovered someone with the same name in the 
USA, working as a light
technician for Marilyn Manson!), and he also invited people to join him 
through his web site at a new eve
dinner party in his home, where thanks to a webcam you could see him eat 
and drink alone at a table, with the
possibility of talking with him through the charming electronic voice of an 
invisible Miss Kathy (François
produced a wonderfully detailed documentation of his IM98 actions, see 
examples in attachment 3). In the
light of the NATO militar intervention in Serbia, a special meaning is 
taken also by a series of performances
and international meetings organized by Dobrica Kamperelic, Nenad 
Bogdanovic and other yugoslavian
friends: this catalogue is not the right place to engage in a 
historical-political discussion, but surely the way
of mail art has never been the way of bombs, violence and hate.

The IM98 also had a bizarrely appropriate appendix with the opening on 
January 14th 1999 of a Ray Johnson
retrospective at the Whitney Museum in New York, the same prestigious space 
where one of the very first
mail art exhibitions was organized by Johnson himself in 1970. On the 
opening day several mail artists met,
some wearing Ray/bunny "collage decoder" masks prepared and smuggled into 
the museum by Joel Cohen.
The meeting of a small crowd of networkers continued at the opening of 
another concomitant and related NY
show, "Bay Area Dada: Before Punk and Zines" organized by John Held Jr. at 
the Printed Matter bookshop,
including a section of works in tribute to Johnson. As part of a collective 
IM98 postal action named "Ray
Johnson New York Retrospective School Meeting", in late Fall ’98 I had 
mailed out a "add-to-and-pass-on"
giant postcard with the face of a young Johnson to Joel Cohen, who passed 
it on to other networkers and
made sure that it returned back in NY in time for the Whitney 
retrospective, were the postcard was finally
delivered. A virtuoso, even more than his friend Andy Warhol, of creative 
gossip like Ray would have been
artfully delighted to know that at the opening of his retrospective, more 
or less by chance, showed up also a
certain Miss Monika Lewinsky: when you say the power of "incongruous meetings"…

So, will somebody please do it all (different) again in 2004?

-------------------------------

                                IM98 PREVIEWS

8-12 Dec. 1997: APHORISMS UNDERGROUND (The Sticker Dude); 31 Dec. 
1997-1-1-1998: THE RAT’S
EVE DINNER (Charles François).

                    THE INCONGRUOUS MEETINGS 1998 CALENDAR

                   CONTINUOUS, MULTIPLE AND REPEATED EVENTS

Anytime in 1998: TO THE TOP (H.R. Fricker); I SANTINI DEL PRETE MEETING 
(Franco Santini and
Raimondo Del Prete); "WITH YOU" MEETING (Keiichi Nakamura); FESTIVAL OF THE 
WRITTEN
BANKNOTE (Stefano Marcoz/Richard Chase); THEME PARK MEETING (Roger Radio); 
SPIRIT DREAMS
(survivors of child abuse, mental and physical); REMEMBER THE POST OFFICE 
(Michael Lumb);
INTERNATIONAL TAX FORM DAY (Umberto Principi/MAGAM); MEET YOUR HOMONYM(S)! 
(Charles
François); TARTARUGO FLUXUS ACTION N.1 (Tartarugo); MAIL ART BATHROOM 
(Dragonfly Dream);
A MAGICAL AND OCCULT DICTIONARY OF MAIL ART (César Reglero Campos and José 
Emilio Antón);
TAPE MEETING (Maurizio Mercuri); BIG BREAST DAY (Rev. J. Luoma); MEET 
YOURSELF (Geert-Jan);
BLAH, BLAH, BLAH (Joe Decie and Apple Jack Dada); EXPLODING PLASTIC 
INEVITABLE (Maurizio
Mercuri); UNFRIENDLY MOBILE PHONE OWNERS (Theo); the sooner the better: 
PEOPLE WHO OWE US
MONEY (M.T.T.); on Friday 13th February, March and November 1998: FRIDAY 
THIRTEEN (minority
groups); each third Saturday of the month: CLAMOR BRZESKA (Vortice 
Argentina - Fernando Garcìa
Delgado).

                                  JANUARY

5: ILLUSTRIOUS MICHAEL SCOTT MEMORIAL MEETING (A.1.Waste Paper Co.); 13: A 
WHEE-WHEE
WEEPING FOR RAY JOHNSON (Le Forbici di Manitù); JUMP FOR RAY (Energyman).

                                 FEBRUARY

17: FRAN MEET ROBIN, BY PROXY (Betty Derrick, Robin Crozier/Fran 
Rutkowsky); 19: LEX DAY
(Lex Loeb); 28: PIG DADA MEETING (Baudhuin Simon); WORLD-WIDE RESISTENCE 
DAY (Clemente
Padin); THE SECRET IM98 MEETING OF THE IUOMA (IUOMA).

                                   MARCH

7: MAILART ANALYSIS ON THE SUNSHINE COAST (Anna Banana); ALTERN/GROWING OLD
(Henning Mittendorf); 17: I WILL MEET MY WIFE IN BED (John M. Bennett); 18: 
IM IN BRUSSELS (C.
François & D. Daligand); 21: LET’S TAKE THE GREASE OFF (Mauro Ceolin); 25: 
WHAT…
WHY/BOEK861.WWW PRESENTATION MEETING (Cesar Reglero Campos); 27: NEXT TO ALMOST
FINAL SUBGENIUS DEVIVAL (St. Janor Hypercleats, Papa Joe Mama, Lymph Node); 
28: POR LA
DESAPROPIACION (Parking/I.D.E.A.); 30: 1000 HAIKUS IN A SINGLE DREAM/SMILE 
(Claudio
Parentela); 31: ACCIDENTAL MEETING OF DESIGNEDLY KIND (Dobrica Kamperelic).

                                   APRIL

1: A MEETING OF INCONGRUOUS WALKERS (Luther Blissett); 2: MEETING ON THE 
GATE (John
Held, Jr. & friends); 10-18: STOCKHOLM TRANSFORMATION (Zorg Transformer); 
12: SPRING
FULLMOON (Birger Jesch); 16: ALMOST FINAL SUBGENIUS DEVIVAL (Einstein's 
Secret orchestra,
Rev. Ivan Stang); 18: BOB KAUFMAN POETRY DAY (Dan Wilcox/Poetry Motel 
Foundation); 23: FINAL
SUBGENIUS DEVIVAL (Dr. K'taden Legume, Rev. Ivan Stang, Brother Cleve 
Dunkan & co.);
25:CURRICULUM VITAE END OF THE ROADSHOW (Dittman).

                                    MAY

3: GREETINGS FROM 1VON20 (Jorg Seifert & friends); 6-16: INCONGRUOUS COPY 
(Reed Altemus &
Pete Fischer); 7: OFFICIAL MRAUROVIAN PRESENTATION CEREMONY HONORING PERE SOUSA
(Jas W. Felter); 8: PRECOCIOUS DIAGNOSIS DAY (Vincenzo Giardelli); HOMAGE 
TO BUSTER
CLEVELAND (Rocola, John Held Jr., Picasso Gaglione, Carlo Giovanni 
Cicatelli); 9-18: HAPPY
BIRTHDAY MINDEN/INCONGRUOUS OPEN AIR GALLERY (Angela+Peter Netmail & 
guests); 18-30:
POSTCARDS FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM (Vittorio Baccelli); 24: PIG MAIL ART IN 
POLAND
(Baudhuin Simon, Bartek & Magda); 27: A TOAST TO BUSTER C. (Jas W. Felter).

                                    JUNE

1-7: GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION (Our Lady of Latex); 1-30: JOHNNY BOY FOR 
PRESIDENT (Gianni
Simone); PAINTING AND COLLAGE WITH CHILDREN (Ulla Rohr); 4: ANARCODADADAY 
(Bertrand
M. Niessen); OFFICIAL MRAUROVIAN PRESENTATION CEREMONY HONORING JOSE CARLOS
SOTO (Jas W. Felter); 5-7: HACK-IT 98 (Tommaso Tozzi); 6: ANTI-TIME NEOIST 
DAY (Frater Rudolph
Von Prden-heim); ANTI NEO-FASCISM INGONZOGRUOUS MEETING (Gonzo Circus team, Guy
Bleus-42.292); NETWORKER UNDER THE SURFACE (Merlin and Hans Braumüller); 
6-30: ART TERRE
DE POÉSIE FÊTE (Diane Bertrand); 12-29: OPEN WORLD-VISIONS OF NEW ERA (Nubs 
Gallery,
Beograd); 13-14: THE CHANCE OF YOUR LIFE (K. Frank Jensen & Georgine 
Margareta Witta Kiessling
Smith Jensen); 21: A FLOWER BLOOMS IN THE AIR (Franco Piri Focardi); 23: 
RAVENNAEVENT
(Giovanni Strada); 30: A MID-YEAR’S DREAM MEETING (Vittore Baroni/E.O.N.)

                                    JULY

1 (deadline): DRIFTING IMAGES OF POSTAL TIME (Stefano Franci); 2-3: WORLD BOOK
DAY/RENEGADE LIBRARY (Lois Klassen); 4: THERE’RE ONLY TWO SEASONS IN MAINE, 
WINTER
AND THE 4TH OF JULY (Carlo Pittore); 5: INTERSPECIES X-COMMUNICATION 
(Mister Bizarro); 14:
"BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE" (Promenade-concert for Raymond 
Roussel) (Gianni
Broi); 20: MORANDI CONSPIRACY MOVEMENT (Emilio Morandi); MARCELLAND (Tibor 
Vass -
Miskolc Art Workshop); 24: D.D. IS MOVING HEMISPHERE (David Dellafiora); 
TAKE A BATH
WITHOUT UNDERPANTS (multiple ideas in motion); 25: CHIAPAS, THE FIRST 
SOCIAL REVOLUTION
OF THE III MILLENNIUM (Clemente Padin); ENCUENTRO DE POESIA VISUAL FONETICA Y
EXPERIMENTAL (Vortice); on a mid summer night: VEC SUMMER EVENT (the VEC 
inner circle +
friends).

                                  AUGUST

A warm day in August or September: TEA TIME (Patricia Tavenner); every 
week-end in Aug. and Sept.:
FREE THE GARDEN DWARVES (Garden Dwarves Liberation Front & Anarcociclismo); 
7: FAGAGAGA
MEET PANMAN (Mark, Mel, Mark & Simon); 8: ONE WORLD ORGASM (Alex Igloo); 20-23:
CONGRESS OF INCONGRUOUS POETICS (Miekal And & Myles Robert); 23-26: ART OF 
BUNUS IN
GALLERY (I. Bunus); 29: THE FAKE INCONGRUOUS PICABIA TRANSISTERS (Dawn 
Redwood & Peter
Netmail); NAPOLEON ISLAND’S EMBASSY INVITE YOU (Richard De Meester); 30: 
CRACK OF DAWN
(Pierpaolo & Antonella Limongelli).

                                 SEPTEMBER

Sept.-Dec. 1998: THE FESTIVAL OF LOST OBJECTS (Gypsy Sherred); 3: WE LIKE 
NO!ART (Charistos
& Ansai); 5-12: THE WEDNESDAY CLUB - A VACATION (Jürgen Olbrich & friends); 
10-12:
E-MAIL/FAX MARATHONE (Dmitry Bulatov – Russian Folk Noism Department); 12: 
THREAD PHONE
COMMUNICATION (Hilocco Ushui, Merlin, Raimondo Del Prete, Hans Braumuller); 
18: THE
REVOLUTION HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE DAY (Sergio Messina/RadioGladio); 22: 
EVERY PIG IS A
STAR (Baudhuin Simon, Richard De Meester & Co.); 24: MAIL ART, MUSHROOMS 
AND NAPOLEON
ISLAND IN FOREST (N.E.I.); 30: MARRIAGE OF THE CENTURY (Emily & Joe Casilio).

                                  OCTOBER

The month of October, 1998: OCTOBER IN THE RAILOAD EARTH (Dave Baptiste 
Chirot); 2: HOMAGE
TO MARCEL DUCHAMP (Juan Carlos Romero, Fernando Garcia Delgado); 5-11: 
WHO’S HOME (B. Saved);
14: DR. HERNIART (Guy Bleus & doctors); 15: HOW TIME FLIES (Ever Arts, Ko 
De Jonge, Jan
Verschoore); 16: INTOXICATED MEETING 98 (N. Bogdanovic, J. Supek, G. 
Sandor, A. Jovanovic); 17-Nov.
1: YU-ITALIAN IM98 IN BEOGRAD (G. Strada, E. Morandi, D. Kamperelic); 22: 
10-22-38 ASTORIA (A.1.
Waste Paper Co. Ltd.); 23: CABBAGES FOR A SNACK (New Plagiarist Alliance); 
31-Nov. 1: STONES WITH
PC (Gianni Broi and Annamaria Caracciolo - Free Dog Club); BRAINS ADRIFT 
(FURIOUS FIESTA) ( Free
Individualities).

                                 NOVEMBER

5-Dec. 31: IM98 TABACOT (Jas W.Felter and César Reglero); 6: EDGARDO 
ANTONIO VIGO’S
HOMMAGE (Clemente Padín); 7: A POSTCARD FOR YOUR KISS (Piermario Ciani and 
Vittore Baroni);
7-9: 50 YEARS SINCE THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (Claudio 
Fabian Perez);
13-14: SOFO GLU GLU (Antonino Bove & 8 other poets-performers & 7000 live 
turkeys); PRISONERS
OF THE EARTH, COME OUT! (Association Autonomous Astronauts); 21: 
BIRDWATCHING FIELD TRIP
(Fran Rutkowsky/Robin Crozier); 22: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PASTA EATING 
(Arturo Giuseppe
Fallico); 27: AN ACTION FOR YVES KLEIN (Stephen Perkins); 29: HAVE A NICE 
DAY (Alejandro
Thornton & Paula Pellejero).

                                 DECEMBER

1-31: FETCHING HOME STRAY CATS… (Techno Papa); 8: THE NO MORE STUPID MUSIC 
MEETING
(Marco Pandin); 7-9: ANNA BANANA IN PONTE NOSSA (E. Morandi, A. Banana); 9: 
33RD BIRTHDAY
CELEBRATION OF FRANCESCA MANIACI (Francesca Maniaci); 11: INDUSTRIAL 
CONGRESS (J.
Held, M. Cazazza, P. Gaglione, C. Cicatelli); SIT IN A DOORWAY… (Simon 
Warren); 12: 35 DEGREES
CELSIUS: SOLIDARITY FOR LUTHER BLISSETT (L.B. Project); 12/19: INCONGRUOUS 
Mc MEETING
98 (Alan Turner); 13: INTERNATIONAL SITTING ON YOUR TOILET DAY (Arturo 
Giuseppe Fallico);
CELEBRATING RAY WITH VITTORE’S POSTCARD (Ex Posto Facto & David Alvey); 
BLACKSHAW’S
IM98 (The Blackshaws c/o Josephine Ono Ford); 17: WORLD PANSEMIOTIC DAY 
(Daniel Daligand);
22: PINTALO DE VERDE (Antonio Gomez); 23: LET’S PARTY WITH "M"! (Carmine 
Mangone); 26:
TZART (Pedro Bericat); 30: REMEMBERING LEAVES OR BUTTERFLIES (Luca 
Brunori); 31: SZTUKA
FABRYKA IM98 IN LONDON (Sztuka Fabryka - Geert De Decker); ARS LONGA VITA 
BREVIS (Johan
Van Geluwe); ARE MAIL ARTISTS MILLENNIUM-PROOF? (Ruud Janssen); JE 
VOUNDRAIS PAS
CREVER (I WOULD NOT DIE) (mail argt); MARK BLOCH’S MAIL ART LET DOWN 
CELEBRATION
(Mark Bloch); A-WAKE FOR THE MAIL ART SPIRIT (anonymous multiple invite); 
last days: MEET ME
UP THE MOUNTAIN (Lawrence Upton); ?: THE CATACOMBES OF PARIS (Marlies 
Mulders); 32: THE
FIFTH DIMENSION NETLAND (Guy Bleus).

                                 IM98 CODA

New Year’s Eve, from 12.01 pm onward: INTERNATIONAL EURO DISAGREEMENT EVE 
(Jokinen); Jan.
4th, 1999: ALIEN COMINGOUT DAY ("you know who you are"); Jan. 9th, 1999: 
INCONGRUOUS
MILLENNIUM… SLAUGHTERHOUSE! (J. Ross La Griffe, F. Cornerotte, B. Simon); 
Jan. 14th, 1999: RAY
JOHNSON NEW YORK RETROSPECTIVE SCHOOL MEETING (the E.O.N. Archive of Ray & 
Dead Mail
Artists Society).

                                 STATISTICS

Total number of meetings: 151, plus a small number of obviously fake 
invites, conceptual jokes and
undecipherable hand-writings that I could not list in the calendar above. I 
hope that I have not forgotten or
lost any communication. Snail mail and e-mail are still both imperfect 
systems with some black holes.

Countries involved: 28 more or less, depending on today’s New World 
Disorder (Akademgorod, Argentina,
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, 
France, Germany, Hungary,
Italy, Japan, Napoleon Island, The Netherlands, Netland, Poland, Russia, 
Serbia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Tui Tui, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay).

Species: we got men, women, transgenders, railwaymen, aaastromen, turkeys, 
fishes, stones, Luther
Blissetts, UFOs, SubGenii, nudists, mail artists, net-surfers, poets, 
musicians and even a few art critics.

Total estimate of living beings involved in incongruous meetings: roughly 
between 500 and 3000.

Photographic evidence: see the Sgt. Peppers type collage on the cover of 
the IM98 catalogue (ask for a jpg
colour file if not already enclosed). I tried to include in it as many 
received photos of meetings as possible.
All (times, places, faces) together now!

------------------------------

                            DOCUMENTATION PLAN

The fact that I had to print and mail out, as promised in my invite, 
hundreds of copies of the IM98 catalogue
paying from my own pocket, obliged me to devise an adequately incongruous 
documentation scheme, that
quite simply functions as follows:

1st LEVEL: IM98 Invite & Updates. Starting in November 1997 I distributed 
for one year a series of seven
bi-monthly updates with the list of invites to incongruous meetings. All 
the updates were widely circulated
through e-mail and also made available in some Internet web sites (thanks 
to Merzmail, T.A.M., Tartarugo
and Viva Las Vegastamps). The updates n.1-2-3-5-7 were also printed in 
editions of 2-300 xeroxed copies
with original graphics and manual interventions, distributed via snail-mail.

2nd LEVEL: IM98 Calendar-Catalog(ue). A booklet in a xeroxed edition of 500 
un-numbered copies, small
and cheap but with invaluable enclosures, manual interventions and much 
eye-strain on your part. It is also
issue 81 of Arte Postale! magazine. Mailed free to everyone who organized 
or participated to an
incongruous meeting and sent some kind of documentation to E.O.N. Remaining 
copies exchanged free in
the mail art network, also available while they last for 2 I.R.C. coupons 
or 2.00 US $ cash hidden in
envelope to V. Baroni, Via C. Battisti 339, 55049 Viareggio, LU, Italy.

3rd LEVEL: IM98 Cassette Supplement. A C46 cassette (plus informative 8 
pages booklet) with a mix of
nice songs and audio snippets submitted by 13 international IM98 
participants. Limited un-numbered arty
edition, mailed free to the contributing authors. Extra copies are 
available at production cost: send a blank
C46 cassette and 2 I.R.C. coupons or 3.00 US $ cash at the address above.

4th LEVEL: IM98 E-Mail List. You are here. Free on request from 
baroniv at ats.it. You will receive all the
texts in the printed catalogue plus a much more detailed list of meetings 
and a few bonus text files. Sent as
RTF text attachment (should work on most computers). Please specify if you 
also want a jpg attachment of
the catalogue cover in gorgeous colours. The files might be heavy to 
download, so request at your own risk.

5th LEVEL: IM98 Chest. The good old hands-on approach. Visit the E.O.N. 
archive in Viareggio (full
address above) and browse freely in the big chest containing all the 
original mail and documenta-tion
related to the IM98 project. See for yourself how incongruous it can get. 
Hours of instructive fun,
refreshments not included. Vreni and H.R. Fricker (the Easter bunnies) 
already visited E.O.N. and had a
chance to cast a quick glance at the IM98 chest.

6th LEVEL: UP 2U IM98. Print your own incongruous documentation and 
circulate it any way you want.

FOOTNOTE: If any generous Maecenas of the arts wants to edit, print and 
distribute at his own expenses a
200 pages glossy cata-logue of the IM98 project, I am more than willing to 
lend him the complete original
documentation.