Index: Ulises Carrion

Biography

Ulises Carrión was born in San Andres Tuxtla, Veracruz, Mexico in 1941. He studied literature and philosophy at UNAM (The National University of Mexico) and went on to become a successful and respected writer; his books of short stories, La muerte de miss O and De Alemania, were published in 1966 and in 1970 respectively.
He received grants to study language and literature in Paris (1964), Germany (1965) and Leeds, England (1972). Whilst in England, Ulises Carrión discovered the work of the Beau Geste Press, that impressed him very much.

In 1972 Carrión moved to Amsterdam, where he began producing his first artist books. He used various techniques and media to always create a special product. To spread his art as much as possible, he extended his mail art contacts. In addition to his projects, Carrión developed the Erratic Art Mail International System (1977), that was supposed to be an alternative to the official postal system, and of which he said: “By using the E.A.M.I.S. you support the only alternative to the national bureaucracies and you strengthen the international artists community.”

His essay Mail Art and the Big Monster (1977) also reflects the cultural strategy of mail art as a “guerrilla war against the Big Monster”. With his stamp projects Carrión attacked the existing system of communication. About his work with stamps, he said: “Among the many genres that artists have created, identified and developed, Stamp Art is a democratic one if there is any. The materials are simple, the format small, the appearance discrete.” For his Cancellation Stamps Project (1979) Carrión invited different artists to design a stamp. The contributions received were the basis for an exhibition at the gallery Stempelplaats in Amsterdam. His projects have questioned the idea of authorship and original, and stressed the cooperation. Feedback Pieces (1981), for example, consists of 242 responses to an invitation that has been transformed by the participating artists to create new works. In 1989 Carrión died in Amsterdam.

Projects

Definitions of Art (1977)
Erratic Mail Art System (1977)
Ephemera (1977-78)
Box, Boxing Boxers (1978)
Artist’s Postage Stamps and Cancellation Stamps (1979)
Anonymous Quotations (1979)
Feedback Pieces (1981)

Literature (selection)

Carrión, Ulises (Hg.): From Bookworks to Mailworks, other books and so, Amsterdam, 1978.
Carrión, Ulises, (Hg).: Commonpress 5, Selbstverlag, Amsterdam, 1978 (Box Boxing Boxers).
Carrión, Ulises, u.a.: Ephemera, Other Books and So, Amsterdam, ab 1978.
Carrión, Ulises: Mirror box, Stempelplaats Amsterdam, 1979.
Carrión, Ulises, Robin Crozier, u.a.: Kunst in der Öffentlichkeit, Marode Editions, Würzburg, 1981.
Carrión, Ulises und Hubert Kretschmer: die neue kunst des büchermachens, Wolkenkratzer Verlag, Frankfurt, 1982.