Guy Bleus (born October 23, 1950) is a Belgian artist, archivist and writer. He is associated with olfactory art, visual poetry, performance art and the mail art movement.Bex, F., Baudson, M., e.a.. L’art en Belgique depuis 1975. Antwerp : Fonds Mercator, 2001.
His work covers different areas, including administration (which he calls Artministration), postal and olfactory communication. Prof. Dr. Van den Bossche, Marc. The 'system' – Guy Bleus as a critic of technical thinking, in: Pêle-Mêle: Guy Bleus® – 42.292, Hasselt, 2010
Art and archive Bleus was born on October 23, 1950, in Hasselt. In 1978, he founded The Administration Centre – 42.292 which became a huge art archive with the works and information of 6000 artists from more than 60 countries. ADT: The archive as a work of art: Guy Bleus – 42.292, CVK - Muhka, 2020 "Guy Bleus has one of the finest archives of mail art in Europe, if not the world."Held, Jr., John. Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography, Metuchen, 1991
Bleus was the first artist who systematically used scents in plastic arts. In 1978, he wrote the olfactory manifesto The Thrill of Working with Odours in which he deplores the lack of interest in scents in the visual arts. Manifesto 'The Thrill of Working with Odours' 1978 Since then he showed smell paintings, mailed perfumed objects and made aromatic installations; he also created spray performances where he sprayed a mist of fragrance over the audience.Hermans, Ivan. Guy Bleus in: High Performance, Issue 22, Vol.6, n°2, 1983www.artpool.hu Olfactive installation 1998Guy Bleus - 42.292 Facebook
Exploring the possibilities of communication media as art media, he investigated the postal system in Indirect correspondence (1979) and searched for an alternative postal system in Airmail by balloons. Together with Charles François he was a pioneer using a computer connected to a modem for artistic communication (in 1989). He also applied reproduction media such as Microfilm, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM for artistic reasons.
Performance works
One of his performance works from the 1980s was documented in the artists' periodical Force Mental. The performance took place in the venue Il Ventuno in Hasselt, and is described as follows: "Guy Bleus wears a costume made of official stamps of 1/2fr. He cuts his moustache into a Hitler-moustache. Against the wall he hangs photocopies of Hitler's head. Enlargements whereby the moustache is growing bigger (till A3 format). Bleus sticks then stamps, the same as of which his costume is made of and stamps them with his number-stamp: 42.292. Then he sticks a naked girl full with stamps of 1/2fr and stamps them with the number stamp. Finally he cuts off his Hitler-moustache and breaks a mirror."Force Mental, nr. 14, Dec. 1986, p. 507
Another fascinating performance of Bleus is called 'Value Shredder' (1982, Brussels, Gallery Entr'Act). Bleus took hundreds of real 50 Belgian franc banknotes and made a suit out of them. Wearing this suit he began his performance. He gave the audience plastic raincoats to put on and asked them to hand over their identity cards. He put the cards into a paper shredder, then tore up Mein Kampf and threw the pages into the shredder too. When everything was completely shredded he blew odours and flour over the public with a fan. Finally, he removed his suit and set it on fire. After the performance the public received an identity card from planet Mars. A life-size photo of Bleus's money suit is part of the art collection of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB).Verhaeren, Nele. De mythe van het papier, in: ‘Connect’, Brussel, NBB, 09/2004, p.11
To honor the Italian artist Guglielmo Achille Cavellini Guy Bleus organized the four-day "Cavellini Festival 1984" in the cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Eeklo, Hasselt, and Tienen. In the administrative performance "First President of the USE" in Brussels, capital of Europe, Bleus officially declared Cavellini the very first president of the United States of Europe.Guglielmo Achille Cavellini (1989). Vita di un genio. Brescia: Centro Studi Cavelliniani. p. 135-136
Networking and projects
Numerous are the international art projects Bleus has organised, such as Are you experienced? L.H.F.S. (1981), Guy Bleus-42.292, Are You Experienced?, 1981. Lomholt mail art archive Denmark W.A.A.: Mail eARTh Atlas (1981–83), World Art Atlas, 1982. Lomholt mail art archive Denmark Telegraphy (1983), Telegraphy – & Mail Art Project, 1983. Lomholt mail art archive Denmark Aerograms (1984), Cavellini Festival 1984,Held, Jr., John. Mail Art Shows, 1970–1985, Dallas 1986 Art is Books (1991), Fax Performances (1992–1993), Guy Bleus-42.292, Fax Art Project & Performance, De Fabriek, Eindhoven, 1993 Private Art Detective: Sealed Confessions, and Building Plans & Schemes (1993). Biography Guy Bleus
He wrote and published many essays on the subject of networking art.unicat.be About his essay Exploring Mail Art (1984), Géza Perneckzy wrote: “The study of Guy Bleus outranks all other publications with its theoretical weight and conciseness.”Perneczky, Géza. Artists’ Stamps, in: Stamp Images, Budapest, 1987 Moreover, he contributed to significant publications, such as Piotr Rypson's Mail Art, Chuck Welch's Eternal Network, A Mail Art Anthology, or Vittore Baroni's Postcards – Cartoline d’artista. He participated in many artists' periodicals.Perneczky, Géza. The Magazine Network: The Trends of Alternative Art in the Light of Their Periodicals 1968–1988, Cologne, 1993
From 1994 to 1999, he opened in Hasselt the art gallery E-Mail-Art Archives. In this non-profit space more than 40 events of mail art, fax art and Internet art took place. Artists such as Ben Vautier, Shozo Shimamoto, Anna Banana, Julien Blaine, H.R. Fricker and Clemente Padin were exhibited.Pêle-Mêle. Guy Bleus - 42.292, ed. R. Geladé, N. Coninx & F. Bleus, Cultuurcentrum, Hasselt, 2010, p.128Programmatiebrochure, Centrum voor Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, Fall 1994, p. 9.Programmatiebrochure, Centrum voor Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, Spring 1995, p. 10: Ray Johnson; Retrospective I: Doc(k)x - J.Blaine (1976-1995).Cultuurnieuws - Provinciaal Centrum voor Beeldende Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, September 1996, Vol. 1, # 1, p. 6.Cultuurnieuws - Provinciaal Centrum voor Beeldende Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, September 1997, Vol. 2, # 6, p. 5: Personalia & Persona Grata: Klaus Groh; Clemente Padin.Cultuurnieuws - Provinciaal Centrum voor Beeldende Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, February 1998, Vol. 3, # 8, p. 4: Personalia & Persona Grata': Fernando Aguiar, Piermario Ciani, Jurgen O. Olbrich.
In 1995, he edited The Artistamp Collection,Bleus, Guy. The Artistamp Collection 1995–1996 the first mail art catalogue on CD-ROM. With the participation of networking artists such as Vittore Baroni, Ken Friedman, John Held Jr., Ruud Janssen, György Galántai, Pawel Petasz and Géza Perneczky, he published in 1997 the first E-Mail-Art & Internet-Art Manifesto, an issue of his electronic zine.Bleus, Guy. E-Pêle-Mêle: E-Mail-Art Netzine, Vol.III, n° 1, 1997
After a bureaucratic venture of 20 years he realised in 2003 (together with Jean Spiroux) the very first postage stamp on the theme mail art edited by an official Postal Service. It was an edition of 4 million copies realised by the Belgian Postal Service. Belgian Postal Service – Journée du Timbre: Mail-Art, 2003
In 2005 and 2006, Bleus organised the olfactory mail art project Scents, Locks & Kisses with 778 artists from 43 countries in the Art Museum Z33.Z33 The website is a slideshow with all the works of the participating artists.Scents : Locks : Kisses
A retrospective of his work was held in the Cultural Centre of Hasselt in 2010. The publication Pêle-Mêle: Guy Bleus® – 42.292 had bracts perfumed with lavender essence and included a re-edition of his ID from planet Mars of 1979.CCHa
Bibliography
Gajewski, H. Mail Art Handbook, The Open University, Amsterdam, 1983 Rypson, P. Mail-Art – Czyli Sztuka Poczty, Akademia Ruchu, Warszawa, 1985 Welch, C. Networking Currents, Sandbar Willow Press, Boston, 1986 Truck, Fred. Guy Bleus, in: The Memory Bank, Des Moines University, 1986 Ruch, G. (editor). MA-Congress 86, Out-press, Geneva, 1987 Fricker, H.R. I Am A Networker (Sometimes) , St. Gallen 1989 Held, J. World Bibliography of Mail Art, Dallas Public Library, 1989 John Held Jr., World Bibliography of Mail Art Broi, G. La posta in gioco. La comunicazione postale come creatività artistica, Pres. del consiglio del ministri, Florence, 1990 Held, J. Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography, (Foreword: G.Bleus), Scarecrow Press, 1991. Rypson, P. Mail-Art – Czyli Sztuka Poczty, National Museum, Warszawa, 1991 Laszlo, J.-N. Timbres d'artistes, Musée de la Poste, Paris, 1993 Meyer, P. Mailed Art in Uppsala, Upsala, 1994 Urbons, K. Elektrografie, DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne, 1994 Welch, C. Eternal Network: A Mail-Art Anthology, Alberta, University of Calgary Press, 1994 Held, J. (Ed.), Guy Bleus: Selected Writings, Stamp Art Gallery, San Francisco, 1996 Hamard-Wang, N. Mail Art Networking, entre communication et esthétique, Université de Paris, 1996 Baroni, V. Arte Postale: Guida al network della corrispondenza creativa, Bertiolo, 1997 Perneczky, G. Mail Art: An Essay, in Rampike, Vol. 8 # 2, 1997 Held, J. Rubber Stamp Art, Bertiolo, AAA-edizioni, 1999 Felter, J.W. Artistamps – Francobolli d’Artista, Bertiolo, AAA Edizioni, 2000 Löbach-Hinweiser, B. Artists’ Banknote Works, Cremlinge, 2000 Saper, Craig J. Networked Art, University of Minnesota Press, 2001 Castellin, Ph. Doc(k)s : mode d'emploi - histoire, formes & sens des poésies expérimentales au XXe siècle, Ed. Al Dante, Paris, 2002. Siegmann, R. Mail Art, Art postal – Art posté, Paris, 2002 Perneczky, G. Correspondence Works & Labels, Köln, 2003 Blaine, J. Mail Art 2003, VAC, Ventabren art contemporain, 2003 Starbuck, M.K. Clashing and Converging: Effects of the Internet on the Correspondence Art Network, Austin, University of Texas, 2003 Chandler, A. & Neumark, N. (Ed.). At a distance: precursors to art and activism on the Internet, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), 2005 Baccelli, V. Arte Postale – Mail art, Tesseratto Editore, Seville (E), 2009 Lomholt, N.P. & Denhart, L.A. Lomholt Mail Art Archive, Formular Press, Denmark, 2010 Gutiérrez Marx, G. Artecorreo: Artistas Invisibles en La Red Postal 1975–1995, Buenos Aires, Luna Verde, 2010 Sousa, P. (Merzmail). Mail Art – La Red Eterna, L.U.P.I., Sestao, 2011 Held, J. Where the Secret is Hidden: Collected Essays, 1979–2011 – Part 1 & 2, Bananafish Publications, Sacramento and San Francisco, California, 2011 Bleus, G. Social Mail-Art, in: Boschi, A. 50 Years of Mail Art: 1962–2012, Museo Civico e della Mail Art di Montecarotto, p. 46-47, 2012 dj readies (Craig J.Saper). Intimate Bureaucracies: A Manifesto, Brooklyn, NY: punctum books, 2012. Holsbeek, D. Guy Bleus, in: Landscape of Images, ed. Eurlings, Ellen (e.a.), Hasselt, 2012. Chiarlone Debenedetti, B. Art through Postal Service, Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso S.p.A., ilmiolibri, Roma, 2013 Galántai G. & Klaniczay J. (Ed.). Artpool: The Experimental Art Archive of East-Central Europe, Budapest, 2013. Crombez, T. Arm theater in een gouden tijd. Ritueel en avant-garde na de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Lannoo, Leuven, 2014. Ramon, R. Vorm & Visie. Geschiedenis van de Concrete en Visuele Poëzie in Nederland en Vlaanderen, Poëziecentrum, Ghent, 2014. Pianowski, F. Análisis Histórico del Arte Correo en América Latina, Universitat de Barcelona, 2014 Held, J. Small Scale Subversion: Mail Art & Artistamps, TAM-Publications, Breda, 2015. Sarenco, Benetton L., De Vree J. Visual Poetry in Europe, imago mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection, Antiga Edizioni, 2016. Bleus, G. Communication: 44 Statements, in: Cook, S. (ed.), Information, Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art, The MIT Press, 2016. Pas, J. Artists' Publications: The Belgian Contribution, Koenig Books, London, 2017.