Mail Art and Conceptual Works at Espace Louis Vuitton Paris

The exhibition 'Correspondances' at Espace culturel Louis Vuitton in Paris (February 1 – May 5, 2013) explores mail art and conceptual practices through over 100 works curated by Erik Verhagen. It highlights Ray Johnson, a founder of mail art in the early 1950s, with his Rabbit motif and ambiguous authorship. The show includes Jan Dibbets' rare set of postcards from Nova Scotia College, Alighiero Boetti's envelopes (first-time loan by his daughter) with stamp permutations, sent from Afghanistan or Greece and mostly unopened. Eleanor Antin's '100 Boots' series (51 postcards, once owned by Bruce Nauman) depicts boots in various settings, mailed to 1,000 people. Stephen Antonakos' mysterious packages from 1971, where he asked artists to send envelopes without revealing contents, are displayed. Guillaume Leblon constructed a 'conceptual street' with fake mailboxes. Contemporary works include Walead Beshty's metal packages, Eugenio Dittborn's fabric compositions (shown with travel-worn packaging, referencing Ronsard and Ray Johnson), Vittorio Santoro's letters stating 'Silence destroys consequences', and Danh Võ's ongoing piece where his father copies a missionary's letter before his beheading. Clarisse Hahn's film with Thomas Clerc, using lost footage from Mexico, addresses disappearance and re-creation.