Friours EARTH charter

2006-05-31T15:57:00.000-07:00

THE BEGINNING

A meeting in my flat in Brussels to prepare the festival and the Earth Charter installation.

Here Geert De Decker is playing with the earth object Josee Hatin (CANADA) mailed me

photos: GV

Installation with the marvelous piece by Josee Hatin, disposed on other ceramic pieces of my private collection

2006-05-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

A dinner meeting BEFORE the festival uniting

Pete Spence, Australia

Bernd Reichert, Germany but living in Belgium

Zois & Lynn, USA

& Guido Vermeulen, Belgium (camera eye)

2006-05-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

The festival happened in the academy of Fine arts of the town of St Niklaas, Flemish part of Belgium

Program of artistic performances during the festival weekend

Altered Festival Postcard, part of the Earth Charter postcard contributions box, traveled very fast to "other hands & horizons"

GROUP PHOTO of participating artists, organizers and the real workers behind the festival!

This photo was shot by one of the participating artists, Zoran Dragelj, a Croatian living in Canada, who commented on the performance row (see later on the blog) "oh no, this is really the end of Serbia". Well, not exactly, but it was a good example of a cultural social clash anyway! (GV)

2006-05-31T14:40:00.000-07:00

The EARTH CHARTER contributions installation at the INDEPENDENT ARTS FESTIVAL in St Niklaas, Belgium, which happend the weekend of April 22-23, 2006
Photos: Guido Vermeulen - Reid Wood - Peter Netmail

Table with artist books, zines and poetry contributions. A box contained the postcard contributions and visitors to the festival were invited to go thru the box and return home with one of the postcards, to keep or to mail further on...

Me copying the poem WHERE of Patrick Anderson Mc Quoid, I read later in the night at the Archipel event

When I took the installation down I gave Patrick's poem contribution to Patricia, one of the cultural organizers of the town of St Niklaas

2006-05-31T14:24:00.000-07:00

Geert De Decker, one of the main organizers of the festival, between the Earth Charter installation. This installation was the work of Guido Vermeulen assisted by Pete Spence, who traveled to St Niklaas on Friday. Later Pete wrote this funny text as comment on the day before the opening of the festival weekend:

BELGIUM 2006

in St Niklaas
I'm helping Guido
hang his exhibition
I put a few things
of mine up!!
Geert is in a panic
Guido and I finish
and find a bar
try a few
of the beers!!
Karl-Friedrich
turns up
we try
a few more!!

Pete Spence

(the creations of Pete you'll find at the end of this blog, in the visual poetry chapter, who Karl-Friedrich is, will follow;
other memorable moment was the poetry reading at Archipel, an event that happened also in St Niklaas. We did the night reading with participating festival poets: Luc Fierens, Dobrica Kamperelic, Pete and I reading a selection of the Earth Charter poems you'll discover also on the blog. We ended the morning in a cellar bar where Dobrica, Karl-Friedrich, Pete and I discussed the meanings of the philosophy of Heidegger. And I can assure you we were not exactly sober... (GV)

June, 2006. Pete emails me another poem "on the festival", so yes, I can say without hesitation that the festival impact has been huge on all who attended it and interrelated with joy and without any hidden agendas...

The ending of the text refers to further traveling from Belgium to Italy, where some who attended the festival met again in Venice for a meeting of the artist's republics (project hosted by Tiziana Baracchi and Giancarlo de Lio)

St Niklaas 2006

spare me a wing
i want to fly
to Brussels
for a summit
with Guido and Bernd
and suddenly
i find my hand
wrapped around
a Belgian beer
in late afternoon
sunshine in spring!
and Reid continues
to look
a figment of enigma
mask or no mask
though isn't that
someone else
behind his mask
as the shadows deepen?
Dobrica may
be enigmatic enough
but does he need
a mask? does he
have one? or would
he borrow Reid's?
as we know he could
while evening thickens!
Peter is again
clowning around
so we all put
on our red noses
until he finally
loses his identity
in the glowing darkness!
the best thing
about Karl-Friedrich
is his ability
to look like himself
and still do so
around three
in the morning
sketching at a bar
when the darkness
is angular
and more precise!
Dawn your dress
sense is not
so cryptic
in the strands
of chaotic air...
so Geert
that apprehension
ruptering your fabryk
was energy
better spent!
yes! the festival
was great!
as i catch a train
out of St Niklaas
to Milan

2006-05-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

Red Nose Communication:
Reid-Mark-Zois-Lynn-Pete & Frips

2006-05-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

Living Concrete art: Water and Clay Altering Sculptures during a whole weekend

Clay and water installation outside the festival room

Water sprinklers attacked the clay during the whole weekend. Earth water found its way to the play ground. The same artist had done a similar thing on a smaller scale last year.

He calls himself Urban Art Spatwork aka Gassy Recipe and is from Belgium.

For me this is an example of concrete art, an echo of concrete poetry and concrete music.

I imagined pictures in the back of concrete poems and a musical score on the background of contemporary composers like Luigi Nono, Mauricio Kagel or Helmut Lachenmann.

Who thinks that the spirit of the sixties is dead must really examine his/her head!(GV)

Picture 1: GV

Other ones: Reid Wood

2006-05-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

Festival Posters by Josh Mac Phee, USA

www.justseeds.org

"Places the US has bombed since WW 2"

Judi Bari (1949-1997) was an environmentalist, a labor organizer and an Earth First activist

Wangari Maathai was the founder of the Green Belt Movement

2006-05-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

Ruben De Loof, Belgium

It was fun for me to see that so many other participants at the festival showed art that was directly Earth Charter related, of course what is not related to the charter???
(GV)

2006-05-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine and the machine is bleeding to death

by DsuDorion, Belgium

Card mailed to me after the festival, a "nice" statement by Kurt Vonnegut, produced by Joel Cohen, aka Sticker Dude (USA)

2006-05-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

Fun robots by Brickboy aka Sjors Trimbach from The Netherlands

Plans of these objects were on a table and the public could decorate a square of the plan

They were then assembled as collective creations

2006-05-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

Pascal Lenoir (France)

viewing the tribute installation to Marilyn Dammann (USA)

and the creations of Pawel Petasz (Poland)

2006-05-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

Reid, Pati and Pete

Pati Bristow and friend (USA), Pati is holding here one of the Earth Charter artist book contributions (by Cordula Kagemann, Germany)

2006-05-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

Australia-France: 1-3

Pete confronting

Pascal Lenoir & friend

& Remy Penard

2006-05-31T13:23:00.000-07:00

A German student,
Franziska Block, preparing a book on network art in Germany, with a special focus on former Eastern Germany, came to the festival and interviewed as many mail artists as possible
Interviews with Geert, Peter, Liza & Guido

When mail artist meet

borders meltdown

are quite celestial

Frips & Mark (B)

Lynn & Zois (USA)

Photos: Reid

Lynn & Zois

2006-05-31T13:14:00.000-07:00

The whole festival edition was based on interactivity with the public. This is the American mail artist Reid Wood with an artist trading card table. He invited people to make their own cards and swap them for his own creations. Something that was a big hit with the visiting school children.
Photos: GV. I helped Reid also with translation assistance.

2006-05-31T13:10:00.000-07:00

Fashion installation by Jimmy Fly and Dzia Dzia (Belgium), based on the punk heritage

2006-05-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

Sabina sewing the portraits of Lorenzo Petrantoni and Reid Wood

Sabina sewing my portrait (GV)

Sabina Romanin making portraits of participating artists and audience of the festival with a Singer sewing machine.

Perhaps the most magical moment of the whole weekend!

Sabina and friend viewing the collage installation of the Italian artist Lorenzo Petrantoni

2006-05-31T12:53:00.000-07:00

Karl Friedrich Hacker playing the saxophone during the festival.

This picture is already from 2005.

2006-05-31T12:47:00.000-07:00

Stencil art creations by Mariusz and friends (Poland), outside and inside the festival room.
The inside installation were fragments placed on magnets, so the audience could construct, alter and change a permanent city of imagination
a smiling Peter Netmail in front of the stencil art installation by M-City (Poland)

2006-05-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

Mail art discussion:

Guido Vermeulen (B)

Luc Fierens (B)

Reid Wood (USA)

Bernd Reichert (B)

Pete Spence (Australia)

Karl Friedrich Hacker (Germany)

photo by Peter Netmail (Germany)

2006-05-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

Requiem mass performance at the festival in memory of Baudhuin Simon, a Belgian mail artist who committed suicide earlier this year.
Performers were: Peter Netmail (Germany) in the role of the pope, Dawn Redwood (England) in the role of the nun, and Dobrica Kamperelic (Serbia) in the role of the monk.
The sermon was spoken in Piggish by the Pope, in English by the Nun and in Serbian Croation by the Monk.

Photos: Reid Wood & Peter Netmail & friends

At the end of the mass we all ate Holy Pig Hosts

2006-05-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

Poetry Performance by Patrick Anderson Mc Quoid (Ireland-Belgium) with interventions by Marina Miletic (Serbia-Belgium)

Photo 1-2: Reid Wood (USA)
Photo 3: Guido Vermeulen (B)

2006-05-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

Performance at the festival by Ultima Occasio: "Freedom for Serbian artists"

Photos 1-2: Reid Wood (USA)
Photos 3-4: Guido Vermeulen (B)

Ultima Occasio is
Dobrica Kamperelic
Marina Miletic
Patrick Anderson Mc Quoid
Eli

2006-05-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Performance at the festival of Nela - Gabrijel & Lidija (Serbia)

Photos: Reid Wood (USA)

Nomenclatura stills rules in Serbia, I guess. When we asked the artists to clean up the mess they made after their performance, a huge scandal followed. They were famous artists, so they did not have to clean up afterwards. How did we have the guts to ask such manuel labor from them? They were artists and had university degrees. Cleaning was for "servants", not for them...

Stunned by such a reversed class fight, the organizers of the festival thanked the performers for this strange definition of elitist socialism (reminded me very much of the attitude of the French Socialist Party in Belgium). So they left by taxi the next day. It inspired me to declare that "all power belonged to the cleaning ladies". Long live the workers in Belgium and Serbia !!! Let's all be true blue forever (GV)

Ultima Occasio decided not to perform the next day in brave solidarity with their Serbian friends who had left. Which was not a problem. Dobrica asked instead to play a video with his performance art. Which we did, thinking that this was a very good example of "sticking to your guns" or not?

2006-05-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

I dedicate this whole project to the memory of MARILYN DAMMANN, USA.
This was her last contribution and testament. Let's all try to honor what she expressed above!
Tributes to M.D. are united on the blog: http://shadowtributes.blogspot.com
(GV)
***************************************************************************

1st principle of the Earth Charter: RESPECT & CARE for the COMMUNITY of LIFE

Bernd Reichert, GERMANY

Martha Aitchinson, ENGLAND

2006-05-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

Kimmo Framelius, FINLAND

Une pluie trop longue

Les journées, les semaines, qui loin de toi sont longues,
C'est comme ces jours-là, où tombe une pluie trop longue.
On se fatigue de vivre dans du mouillé, dans du sale,
Comme je suis englué dans cette vie "normale"...

Escortés de bourgeoises blafardes et fessues, endimanchés,
Une douzaine de vieux messieurs attendent, plein de dignité
Et ne rotant jamais un mot qui ne soit plat
Le cercueil qui ne changera pas grand-chose à leur état.

Non! Vie pâle, confinée,triste, ennuyeuse et grise,
Je ne veux pas aller à ton monde que je méprise
Et qui n'engendre rien dont on ne soit déçu;
Un monde qui ne sait pas vivre et ne l'a jamais su,

Qui tourne en rond, toujours en rond, entre des murs,
Sans même apercevoir les fenêtres. Si l'air pur,
Si un rayon de soleil entraient par ces fenêtres,
Comme s'ils s'obstinaient à parler de renaître,

On se hâterait bien vite de fermer les rideaux,
Par crainte d'être tenté de s'évader. Il leur faut
Une vie dont la ligne soit comme celle que dessine
Un gros bourdon qui heurte tous les murs d'une cuisine.

Qu'attendre ? On m'avait dit de croire à l'amitié,
Mais j'ai appris trop tôt qu'un ami peut tromper.
Mes nuits furent quelquefois plus belles que des jours,
Mais les gens, si prudents, réprouvaient mes amours.

J'ai pensé qu'au milieu d'un monde si répugnant
Je découvrais soudain quelqu'un de différent.
Quelqu'un qui poserait sur mon front, mes paupières,
Deux mains frâiches, apaisantes, amies, douces, légères...

On se fatigue de vivre dans du mouillé, dans du sale,
Comme je suis englué dans cette vie "normale"...
Les journées, les semaines, qui loin de toi sont longues,
C'est comme ces jours-là, où tombe une pluie trop longue...

© Guy De Boeck, Belgium

2006-05-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

Claudio Parentela, ITALY

2006-05-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

Christine Tarantino, Words of Light Publishing, USA

Guido Vermeulen, BELGIUM

2006-05-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

Dmitry Babenko, RUSSIA

Daniele Davalli, ITALY

2006-05-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

Geert De Decker, BELGIUM

How do you highlight an issue as "respect"? By showing what the exact opposite means, a typical Sztuka Fabryka approach ...

It suits my humor, so I laughed a lot, some people will be cross I'm sure, knowing Geert " a bit", that's exactly what he wanted (hihi)

Geert De Decker is a Belgian mail artist, one of the main organizers of the alternative arts festival in St Niklaas and behind one of the main mail art groups you can find on Yahoo

His own website is: http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be

The Yahoo group is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ma-network/

2006-05-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

Pete Pistol, USA

Collage around a quote of Martha J. Beckman:

"Life is what happens to you

while you're making other plans"

2006-05-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

Street message: "When there is no vision, the people perish"

Photo Collage by Sugar Irmer, GERMANY

2006-05-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

Guy Bleus, BELGIUM

"Like always Guy tackles the administration errors of society. Well it was fun to receive this contribution and to let it follow by the old road performance of a common Japanese correspondent. " (GV)

2006-05-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Teruyuki Tsubouchi, JAPAN

Road Performance:
" I hereby declare that of the road regulation signs in Japan, the road signs and road marks
keeping speed within limits of 40 km an hour are all works of art"

2006-05-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Keith Bloodworth, CANADA

T r a c t
(fragment)

one

Tract or
Tract at us
Tract ion

Track shun
Trac Tor
Track invincible
tract luck
Trac tluc
Tract in
Tract out

Tract text
tract develop
tract like
Tract (of) (at)
tract the rest
Tract segment
Tract of total

Tract of Thrace
Tract of dulcimer
Tract then sent
Tract the light
Tract how you were

Tract of dusty
Tract at homes
Tract the sense
Tract the rinse
Tract was him
Tract the total
Tract Tract

How I said goodbye
Tract was sent
Tract had hope
Tract his door
Tract the sentiment
where within reaching

In desperate hours
Tract to poem
Tract the lighter
Tract had his own
Tract to sons
Tract no giving up.

Tract this is
Tract to sending
Tract at hope prays
Tract of other
Tract at healing
Tract at meaning
no hour sends them

Tract this had
Tract this land
Tract this penitent

Tract to love reaching
Tract knows no other
Tract begins yours
Tract the speller

Tract screaming line
Tract tact
Tract wd spell hear
Tract I mean you
Tract to truth
Tract a stealing lie
and gives in to
say goodbye.

I'm
Tract ed traces
a Tract
A tact tract
Tract was kneeling
attitude of forgiveness

Do you? Tract me.
I'll tract you.
Begin no tracts
but spill to hearts
at tracts say
the master tract's
Ails some what sailed

Tract then seems
I'd healed mother/father
but self no tract wd hold
eleven ninety tract
I want to live in your tract
I want to live
I say tract to problems
made of my own business
a tract ed.
Is not sailed tracts
but hearing heart's tracts
Obsolete me no more
but tract them distance
O Lord, my tract traced
within palm, your own
but healing hours trace

Dan Buck, USA

two

tract lines of the past hours
tract mine wast to fore
tract aid, you meant
it hoped. Tract to trace
Say tract I'd moved
but no more than this.

Tract there, and wept
at eels them, tract.
Tract this said yours.
I'd held a tract or
missed alone, no door.
but One at tract, then.
this was tract I'd mailed
you my heart and death.
I don't want no. Tracts
are still here, to them.

Tract a stuck segment,
but not lying was too hard
and left me dying alone.
I don't want at tracts,
then make them alone.
but with you, then son
I'd tract at wailing.
This is. Tract.
After many times, no
silence to tract in.
but wanting survive,
without hope, the tract.

Ill moves, at tracts.
I'll stay but be remember.
Tract me, then yours continue.
Tract to speak, what's then.
What's then to tracts?

Yours is the salver tract.
His is the knowing grin,
but pretending no more
escape is tract the finality.
I've mailed you plenty, but
tracts are left behind. In
tracts at hours spent, begin,
continue this line out
forever tract the lingering
hours tract, I hold I hold
but tract to gnostic hour.
Ember-tract. Inner tract
but empty in remorse, I've
held you dear in my own memory
the tracts we left aside
I hope you remember tracts.
This was my own to share;
what'd tract these lines
what tracts toward hope
what tracts alongside
what tracts.

It begins. You tract toward
Tract at stir, pollen.
Inner grace remembered, heals
tracts in spoken rhymes.
Tracts to spell then said
in lesser regions, tracts.
Taller tracts remind them
of your own grace remembered,
no spiller in the mists, tract
at foreign ports, you've gone
away too long, ellis-tract.

This will continue in other days the tract tracing hope.
Not to pull against my own
disaster, but means tracts.
You know I don't want to stop
this tract-ing, is what I've
said too long away, in remember, in brothers no
stain but helping, and
when resisted in the heart
tract at pay, tract at
what you MEANT to say.
tract tract tract tract
trac t tract tract trac

I didn't think I'd ever write
again. Tract. No mere matter.
the silence is a tract. Giving in a tract, but wanting
to say hello in no bitterness,
what you've done, in tract he
held me down, was spoken no truth but salient doves,
tract. Tract was sent in hearing terms the
tract was sent then railed out, to seem
saying tracts are left beyond
the human score, to my sons
left as memento, not a trivial
mass but won spatially lent,
the tract had its own specifics; lingering
tracts where they were misunderstood,
but tracts to them unite, as
he's inspired me to break out
This is for you, this tract.
This may continue, this tract.
This tract is the basis for more than what is held forth.

Tracts are the spoken sign
of what follows. The door
is also a sign or tract. But.
No butts at tract Ed spoke. I've been away tract
but may not get back tract.
These are the intentions of a longer
tract which is begun but not finished. Tract at.

This may hold your attention
forever tract. With hyphens.
Throughout tract. At height,
tract to sensor mists, then
the plight of a man who missed but didn't,
held in tract shuns, but was no other lies
to tracts in what supposed destiny lay aside, but crossed
then paled, then plowed poled
to take tract then continue, please continue this out along
what called you toward me, then let go out, ah, mad,
but not, tracts. It went Tract.

You'd taken this, but not away, and then spoke tracts.
You see how many there are.
Tract to dust, to dusk, to her. Then tracts knowing in air,
the tract was taken beyond the suggestions. Tract.
It'd rhythmed sign, tractlike went astray but held out to
you like a tract, like. Tract. Then spurred on, he went beyond,
went a little too far in the names he held as tracts do,
as perhaps meaning too much; a tract, then, for the future
of what is revealed in terms, in signs, in tracts; but
spoke too soon and left too long aside, was the door
made open, made tract, made hole in the air, but.
Tract. The benign stupor. of your own destiny/tract/polarity.

I make this for the higher quest, I make a tract
with whomsoever seeketh, not lost in the woods,
but makes a tract to continue, to hold forth. To tract, at verbs.

Tract at the one to pole no star is tract enough,
but another word you've met here

Tract to the simpler door.
Tract to his higher sign.
Tract at the liner pool.
Tract then at the mists and say what follows is
another tract growing out of another sign in the hand, the spool.

This is also another mark. You'd pulled out and
made a sign, made a door, made a tract out of the singing;
here was the fate you pulled aside, the tract you made
within, but went just a little too far. And what risked all,
tract, too, of other hope, and left.

This did not go too far.
Tract At Scores, billboard.
I've you met no, but tract then spoke, what's tract
to one eases another, to tract the higher line.
Tact in others is tract inside. Hears, but does not speak.
Tracts and loans to sentinel to tract.

This and the motor. Tracts and the leading edge. Tracts.

Stay to tract me. Do not leave too soon. Tract at. Sail
to tracts in the islands

He'd a tract. This is for you. This is a tract.
For history or destiny or both.

This is a lasting document. A tract to further,
to follow, to stay on the inside, to become a statement of life.

(c) Thomas Lowe Taylor, USA

Liliana Rusu, ROMANIA

2006-05-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

"This charming charterers"

"We wave to each other"

"We are not alone"

Tryptich by Sietse Hoeksma, RAEL MAIL,

THE NETHERLANDS

2006-05-26T07:47:00.000-07:00

Gianni Simone, JAPAN

OUR THOUGHTS 1 & 2

Our thoughts grow and flow
Differently in you and me..
depending on time,
mood, emotions,
and our strength.

Our thoughts depend on light
falling through our windows
the latter's size,
their condition,
or their total absence.

Our thoughts
depend on the hands,
holding and helping or
hurting and harming us.

Our thoughts
influence our dreams
either dismal, daring or
by their mere absence.

Our thoughts
and dreams shape our life
at large and those around
and growing with or through us.

© Lini Richarda Grol, CANADA

Fidel Vidal, SPAIN

2006-05-26T07:38:00.000-07:00

Silvia Soares, PORTUGAL

THOUGHTS 2

Our thoughts
without restraint
wander in every direction
snowballing on a spark
growing into
an enchanting dream
like an iridescent soap bell
that eventually splatters
startling us, and leaving us
with a dark void…

though our thoughts
may be ephemeral and light
they may be in time become
strongly persuasive
in deciding our future
and the future of our children
as well as the next generation
and the next….

© Lini Richarda Grol, CANADA

Philippe Victor, FRANCE

2006-05-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

Some mail art envelopes that were sent to the project:

Chuck Stake, CANADA

Eric Bensidon, FRANCE

Ingrid Van Kogelenberg, BELGIUM

Jean Hugues, FRANCE

2006-05-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Guido!!!
NEW FRIOUR NETWORK MAGAZINE PROJECT: "THE EARTH CHARTER"

I made an art game with Barry Smylie and Ryan Douglas that suits prefect with point 1 Respect and care for the community of life.
As the media is free, I send you the url so people can play the game
Planet Treasure
Art Game
Muriel Frega - Barry Smylie - Ryan Douglas
http://www.barrysmylie.com/flash/circ3/planetTreasure.htm

greetings

M u r i e l F r e g a, ARGENTINA

www.geocities.com/murielfrega

www.arteydisenio.com.ar

2006-05-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

Poster of "Friends of the earth"

2006-05-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

Tony Kennedy, ENGLAND

2006-05-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

Meg Taney Founds, USA

2006-05-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

Natali Belova, RUSSIA

Irina Logvinova, UKRAIN

2006-05-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

"The road you take matters a great deal!"

joining the conversations between Alice & the Cheshire cat

Guido Vermeulen, BELGIUM

2006-05-26T06:56:00.000-07:00

"Respect Mother Earth"

by Lisa Iris, USA

2006-05-26T06:53:00.000-07:00

Puneet Gupta, INDIA "Suspension" & "Together"

2006-05-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

Walter Pennacchi, ITALY

2006-05-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Ultima Occasio, performance group

Dobrica Kamperelic, SERBIA

Marina Miletic, BELGIUM

Patrick Anderson Mc Quoid, IRELAND

Eli, SERBIA

2006-05-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

Steven Renald, CANADA

2006-05-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Letter,
Go upon your way:
Over mountain, plain or sea.
God bless all who speed your flight
To where I wish you to be
And bless all those beneath the roof
Where I would bid you to rest:
And bless even more the one to whom
This letter is addressed!…

© Focht Sandor, Hungary

2006-05-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

Dorian Ribas Marinho, BRAZIL

2006-05-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

Patricia Estela, ARGENTINA

2006-05-26T02:16:00.000-07:00

Dawn Redwood, ENGLAND
&
Sabina Romanin, ITALY

Dawn & Sabina were both performing artists at the festival in St Niklaas.
Dawn's postcard is a self portrait.
Sabina's is one she made at the festival with her sewing machine. It is a portrait of myself (GV)

2006-05-26T02:12:00.000-07:00

Ivanova Aleksadra, RUSSIA

2006-05-26T02:06:00.000-07:00

Jorg Seifert, GERMANY

Jack Arnould, FRANCE

Dobrica Kamperelic, SERBIA (former Yugoslavia)

2006-05-26T02:00:00.000-07:00

Schoko Casano Rosso, GERMANY

2006-05-26T01:54:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Ryan, USA

2006-05-26T01:45:00.000-07:00

All that we know of the world that surrounds us
is our own true reality.
Be it good, be it bad,
we have to choose our own road ourselves.
Fire to Earth and Air.
That's all what they know about us.
Wind, Rain, Snow, Sun and Moon
are companions.

© Tanja Nastic, SERBIA (former Yugoslavia)

Translation by Boris from Restaurant Old Bosnia, Vinçottestreet Brussels,

a neighbor and friend. (GV)

Poem I also read at the Archipel poetry festival in St Niklaas

coinciding together with the alternative arts festival.

2006-05-26T01:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Guido, this is a rock for your garden! Mike Dyar (USA)

Mail art Log by B.E. Pilcher, IRELAND

Suzlee Ibrahim, MALAYSIA

2006-05-26T01:20:00.000-07:00

2006-05-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

Scene 24
Groupable triangular stage.
Zonk suggested to set down.
He was supposed
to have been famous
in Europe. In Tradition Time
(Which is Emptiness) the left
part of him to be wet.

(c) Mark Sonnenfeld (USA)
on a collage
by Ruggero Maggi (ITALY)

2006-05-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

W.R. Melnikov, RUSSIA & Mark Sonnenfeld, USA

The Letter to Herself-Future

Night in

but my poet friend

just like that

is as beat

jam hair about myself

that?

what right shirt front forever should I attack

where I went

father jean empty road yell

a dit brick count

either

I knew right away

cool national flame in a v-neck black

by meditation dive

in there candles

but

this WAS

2006-05-26T00:50:00.000-07:00

W.R. Melnikov, RUSSIA

2006-05-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

fell against the wall
got sucked to
the ceiling released
fell through
hole in
floor died
returned
died again

© Les Cammer, USA
from the artist book "Poem threat"

Gioacchino Bragato, ITALY

Pascale Hulin, FRANCE

Pascal Lenoir, FRANCE

2006-05-26T00:39:00.000-07:00

Paulo Bruscky, BRAZIL

2006-05-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

Barry Edgar Pilcher, Ireland

2006-05-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

Antoni Miro, SPAIN

2006-05-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

WHERE.

Where the God that saves
may arise from the heart,
where the makers of now
sit idle by.

Where expectations
of the impossible rest,
where clouds cover
the wanting
of what you get.

Where anyone, anywhere,
can make a beginning,
where action and passion
in one's time may flower.

Where often the spirits
walk before the event,
where today
already walks tomorrow.

© Patrick Anderson-Mc Quoid, IRELAND

2006-05-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

Emilio Morandi, ITALY

Carolyn Martin, USA

Bruno Sourdin, FRANCE

2006-05-25T07:46:00.000-07:00

Jacqueline (Jack) Ross, BELGIUM

Brecht a dit… nous aussi !

Des anges en exil pleurent à la porte du ciel…
Eh bien ! C’est leur affaire, et ce n’est pas essentiel !

Nous sommes assez loin de ces espaces étranges.
Là, où l’on entendrait rire, ou pleurer ces anges…
Pour rappel… Sans mépris pour d’angéliques misères…
Plein de mérite, mais en poète, l’homme habite sur cette terre

L’homme, quand sa vie n’est que peine,
A-t-il le droit de ne plus regarder ses pieds
Et la boue qui les colle au sol ?

L’homme, quand sa vie n’est que peine,
A-t-il le droit d’oublier le poids de son corps,
De lever un tout petit peu les yeux ?

L’homme, quand sa vie n’est que peine,
A-t-il le droit d’oublier son poids sur ce sol,
De lever les yeux et de chercher ?…

L’homme, quand sa vie n’est que peine,
A-t-il le droit d’oublier ses pieds au sol, le poids de son corps,
De lever les yeux et de chercher les couleurs des cerfs-volants ?…

L’homme ; quand sa vie n’est que peine,
A-t-il le droit de lever les yeux au ciel ?
Et de dire : « Moi aussi, c’est ainsi que je veux être ! »

L’homme, en regardant vers le ciel,
A-t-il des droits sur l’arc-en-ciel ?
Même si sa vie n’est que peine

L’homme ; quand sa vie n’est que peine,
A-t-il le droit de lever les yeux au ciel ?
Car c’est la seule chose plus grande que son cœur…

© Guy De Boeck, BELGIUM

2006-05-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

Robert Varlez, BELGIUM

Tatjana Neuber, GERMANY

2006-05-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

Julie Hagan Bloch, USA

Pati Bristow, USA

2006-05-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

2nd principle of the Earth Charter:
ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY

Bernd Reichert, GERMANY

Martha Aitchinson, ENGLAND

2006-05-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

The creation of the world,

4 glass windows executed by Roel Van Dale

on a design of Annemiek Bibbe,

THE NETHERLANDS

2006-05-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

Carlo Iacomucci, ITALY

Christine Reilly, TAIWAN

2006-05-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

Elaine Rounds, CANADA

Ecological Footprint

Dorian Ribas Marinho, BRAZIL

2006-05-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

Gianni Simone, JAPAN

Saval, the CZECH REPUBLIC

2006-05-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

Barbara Downes, AUSTRALIA

2006-05-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

DEB, FRANCE

Suzlee Ibrahim, MALAYSIA

2006-05-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

Lynn Palmiter Jr, USA

who also visited the festival in St Niklaas in 2004-2005-2006 !!!

2006-05-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

WE ARE THE CANARIES

We are the canaries
in the mine shaft
of daily fear
of a suffocating end
that we, the world,
even unto the smallest fly,
will die snuffed by poison
emanating from crazed leaders
from profit mad media moguls
from the toxic fumes of lies
that pour
from laboratories of prevarication
silken words
false images
invisible atoms
measured into
vessels everywhere
billboards, expert sources,
surveys, sale flyers
policy papers from consultants
restructured
companies, governments
whole countries,
the miasma of conspiracy
so powerful
even the very air we breath
is threatened.
we are the canaries
smelling the methane of death and greed
we go ahead
resolute in our rallies, our meetings, our walks
our words, our deeds become a chorus
bearing witness against prophecy
the deceit of greedy promise
we sing even in dark places
prisons without light
we sing into open skies
and empty streets
we will sing and sing
until our frail lungs exhale
our truth
that will enclose
the busy,
the apathetic,
the otherwise occupied with
golf courses or cruises

or the magic of malls
and those who have no strength
and lack bread
and those who hear only bullets and bombs
and lack shelter
we will sing until they all hear us
sing until they lift up and join us
sing until we sing the songs together.
we will be as a host of golden birds
rising from invisible and deep places
we will banish the fear
we will transform the power of desecration
our song will restore the earth
and the sun will rise anew
to celebrate us on a pure and glistening morning.

© Theresa Wolfwood, CANADA

Alexej Pushkin, RUSSIA

2006-05-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

Fidel Vidal, SPAIN

What for Pete's sake is ecological integrity?

asked a co-worker on the job with a glaze of nuclear suspicions in her dark blue eyes?
I could see she was afraid that I joined the green party or something else even.
Since the greens put on their website in Belgium that people burning weeds in their city and country gardens are to blame for the ozone layer problem I must say I lost all my enthusiasm for those glorified defenders of the planet. My love for the greens now is below zero but that's another story and linked with more than just blaming ordinary people for a complex problem.
Hey guys, do you forget there is something like industry for instance?

Ecological integrity? How to explain this to someone who is responsible for the safe conduct of nuclear waste transports? Not easy, you would say. Pete, what's your advice? but Pete left already the building, the intercom of the general manager was shouting.

It is the second principle of the Earth charter and you can read about it on www.earthcharter.org

Christ! I nearly talked myself to sleep there.

Come on, Guido. This is not you. Show them art!

So I showed her a collage I made on a world respecting frogs and other amphibians.

Sorry, I told her, I like frogs, and turtles and snakes and lizards and salamanders, reptiles and amphibians.

Aren't they cold creatures?

Well, they warm up in the sun, amazing not. More amazing is that they were buddies of the dinosaurs, so older than mankind, with a memory bigger and longer than humanity. So I think we should respect them more because they are the only links we still have with a past beyond us. My humanity is one that includes these creatures, all creatures in fact and also lifeless things or forms, so they say, like rocks and stones and sand and sea salt.

She started smiling. You live in the wrong hemisphere pall, she told me.

No no, I explained, I live in the right hemisphere, Europe is in the Eastern hemisphere. The Western one that is the USA. We are EurAsia. That's our future.

A lesson in geopolitics and ecology, that becomes interesting. But still I don't get what your frogs have to do with ecological integrity.

Okay, you know how to use Google or Altavista?

Yep.

Just type "frogs+deformities" and you'll understand.

I did it for her and we started reading a few articles. Print this and that, she ordered me (she's quite bossy the transport manager, she could eat Greenpeace activists for breakfast but that's also another story).

There is a general decline in the reptile and amphibian population. Many frogs today are born with severe deformities: multiple legs, missing legs, missing eyes, disappearances of complete species, massive egg mortalities, retinal damage, reduced feeding activities, disequilibrium, all kinds of physical abnormalities, paralysis followed by death, extra legs, affection of the thyroid function and the fetal development

Here she interrupted me to say "but that's like the effects of radiation."

There are more similarities. The problem is linked with height as well. We both knew that radiation becomes a bigger problem the higher you go.

Is it radiation, she asked prudently.

No, not exactly, many factors come into the picture:
The introduction of herbicides and pesticides, agricultural fertilizers who increase the sensitivity of the animals to high-level nitrate exposure, the rising levels of UV-B radiation in sunlight, pathogens, pollutants, habitat destruction, introduction of predators, crop fertilizers, trematode parasites who cause the leg deformities…

Yeah, parasites, so that's nature…

Not exactly: they live part of their life cycle in snails, snails eat algae, the nitrogen-based fertilizers increase the alga growth, increasing the snail population, so increasing the parasites affecting the frogs.
Everything is connected. Once you start playing with the natural balance of things you get monstrous results, you get..

Aliens, monsters, deformed frogs and who knows what more to follow.

Exactly! I point her to a text I select and put in bold:

For some time, researchers have been referring to the dying frogs as the "canary in the coal mine", an early warning sign of environmental danger.

She sighs, she's a coal miner's daughter. I don't have to explain her the canary analogy.

I read out loud another passage:
"The overall result is that this group of animals which has been around since the time of the dinosaurs is now in serious decline all over the world. And some of the things that are killing or deforming frogs almost certainly have implications for other animal species, including humans."

What can we do? This is not funny but rather depressing.

Reflect on policies based on ecological integrity, dear. Integrity means for me respect for all life forms, meaning always considering what the possible implementations are for other creatures (including ourselves) of all these new scientific "revolutions" they promise us.

A bit like the GMO debate?

Exactly! I nearly said to her "a bit like the nuclear debate as well, don't you think?" but kept quiet. How is that saying again: Rome and Paris were not build on the same day…

(c) Guido Vermeulen, BELGIUM
text dedicated to Pati Bristow, USA, who developed a project on FROGS

We consumers of garbage in Brazil, demand special clothes against radiation

Paulo Bruscky, BRAZIL

2006-05-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

my world is one
where one respect frogs
& other creatures
where men stop behaving like reptiles
& start loving plants
& maybe for a split second
start loving each other
start loving themselves
start
loving
till
my world is one
inside & outside
the sun

© Guido Vermeulen, BELGIUM

Ecological integrity is a form of frog wisdom, collage by G.V.

2006-05-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

Frog envelope and papercut by Lavona Sherarts, USA

2006-05-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

Pati Bristow, USA

to my frog friend Guido

Pati visited also the festival in St Niklaas, together with her husband and a close friend

ATC creations

2006-05-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

"Corpus Cosmos" by Guido Vermeulen, BELGIUM

2006-05-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

Jetty

three long poles seeming to hold up the sky
from the ground to the cloud
and well fitted with feather, a flapping in the wind

this turtle island, this narrow strip of planet in space
wayward barren rock sailing through blackness

not so long ago when the promise of seasonal changes brought about
the relative need for fruition
could not foresee this doomed ship's path towards the Magnetar

divulge the knowledge of the future with the faint flash
of an exploding star
the weak, magnetic field of alpha particles and gamma emissions
from a bouncing planetary array

sharpen the knife and ready the paint
no smoke them, peace pipe
wild war yell, ride the pony
counting flint strikes and reaching out for supernovae

with the skin of animals
with the long day shadow
sit and tell stories of the ancient ones
music of the orbs in the rocky canyons

shark tooth, iron snail and rock crystal
in medicine bag
who is to say that secret neutron stars
do not wait for the right moment to stir

'r"e'ga':rd'l"e's"s w;h'e"r"e"

2006-05-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

Laura Barletta, USA

Fast Eyes, USA

Violet Nyhne, USA

2006-05-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Ivan Preissler, CZECH REPUBLIC

forwarded by his mother Eva

thank you Ivan for this communication "from beyond"

2006-05-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

Keiichi Nakamura, JAPAN

Susan Gold, CANADA

2006-05-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Daniel De Culla, SPAIN

2006-05-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Pawel Petasz, POLAND - a forwarded add & pass on mail art sheet

2006-05-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

Dan Buck, USA

2006-05-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

Ingrid Van Kogelenberg,

BELGIUM

Jack Arnould,

FRANCE

Cats & dogs, dogs & cats, cats & cats, dogs & dogs, which side are you on???

2006-05-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

Darko Vulic,

SWITZERLAND

Dobrica Kamperelic, SERBIA

former YUGOSLAVIA

Boven het hoofd van de neergehurkte vrouw, de wereld van mijn verlangen,

vloog een vogel haast onmerkbaar

wist ik dat we beiden getuigden

van een verborgen geboorte:

de terugkeer van een ei

naar O

Guido Vermeulen, BELGIUM

2006-05-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

Silvia Soares, PORTUGAL

Keith Bloodworth, CANADA

2006-05-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

Meg Taney Founds, USA

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals,
Despise riches, give alms to every one that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others,
Hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
Have patience and indulgence toward the people,
Take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any number of men;
Go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body….

WALT WHITMAN, USA
(text forwarded by Meg around this photo:)

J. Shantz, CANADA

2006-05-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

Carol Stetser, USA