Servicio Postal - GENE
1986
1986 marked the beginning of Servicio Postal de Exposiciones, Múltiples y Propaganda (Postal Service for Exhibitions, Multiples and Propaganda), which would later function through the channels of the Galeria Nacional and the GENE group, of which Saiz was a founder that year. The Servicio EMP, according to the editorial in Mailing ‘0’, «is a producer of Multiples distributed by mail and by six month subscription. The number of mailings and how often they're published is random ( ... ) it is open to all suggestions, and the type of work it may produce is unforeseeable ( ... ) it is an unorthodox magazine in which the pages and the articles, are received one by one, and separate from the photographs ( ... ) it is a gallery that in each mailing enters the spectator's house, rather than vice versa . The Servicio Postal de Exposiciones, Multiples y Propaganda is a reinforcement of artistic opposition.» It was a time of open aesthetic combat.
Both in the first era of the mailings, when Manuel Saiz was in charge of them, as well as in the second, when GENE took over, Servicio Postal was an unusually active endeavour. Pedro Roldán, Julio Jara, Pamen Pereria and Jose Díaz Cuyás formed, with Saiz, the nucleus of the instigators. At one time, all of them formed part of the GENE group, based around an alternative space, the Galeria Nacional, with Saiz one of the guiding forces. But far from accepting his role as a pivotal point in group experiences, he reiterates that GENE had its own voice, and not a very comforting one at that. The catalogue for the 1987 group show Punto (Point), with some of the most representative members of the group participating (Colis, Jara, Roldán, Saiz), summed up the program: «GENE is redefined in each new act · the politics of the cave man interests us and the religion of the contemporary artist · we are in favour than against unemployment benefits · we are cruel we doing art politics and not the art of politics · is not a language / do not translate · every act is religious political artistic · the bacon sweet is the speed · toward an art without spectators · as we have said the actual euphoria of the painting hides an artificial and mediocre reality financed by a paternalistic administration · the systemized speed our acts being sheltered in the effectiveness and in the false myth of progress · freedom only exists in the struggle for radical · liberty is transparent · the truth is revolutionary · an individual utopia for a revolution · unconscious revolution for the multiple use of single use objects · it is not that all is made it is that it is always happening · art is a process and not a result · art is an individual activity that takes on meaning in social · Life fashion is a social function that searches for individual meaning · there is no history there is an enormous digestive device · the most interesting thing about Pablo Picasso is Ruiz · time is useless if you cannot waste · it only nothingness is inserted in that which has no cracks · art has no other enemies than the ignorant · the artist is not the lord of art but rather the servant · the abyss is the unit · GENE is useless." A long epistle where Dada influence is easily perceptible, as well as maxims that are directly attributable to Manuel Saiz.
I started the Servicio Postal de Exposiciones Mútiples y Propaganda on my own in 1986, as a means of disseminating art and political ideas. This is the original description of the service.
The message about the fusion and the new group.
When I had sent out about 30 messages created by different artists, I got in touch with Celia García Bravo and Pedro Roldán, who ran the Galería Nacional, a space for art activities. We decided to merge our activities into GENE, a gallery, a postal service and a group of art actions.
GENE lasted about two years, around 1987-88.
GENE
A description of the Servicio Postal already within GENE.
The main members of the group (from left to right) Celia Garcia Bravo, Julio Jara, Manuel Saiz, Alberto Vidarte, Javier Colis and Soto. Pedro Roldán probably took the photo.
There were other occasional members of the group, such as José Díaz Cuyás, Pamen Pereira or Celia Martín.
A picture of a field trip of the group.
The group's actions were called 'Gametos'. This is the description and invitation to one of them, called 'Gameto in favour of stopping', which in Spanish means also 'Gameto in favour of unemployment'. We crossed Madrid from east to west, walking a certain number of steps, different for each participant, and stopping for the same number of seconds. We could stop in the middle of the street or anywhere else. Several people stopping in different parts of the streets created a strange secret choreography.
Here we are about to leave the starting point to perform ‘Gameto in Favour of the Stoppage’.
It was an action by Julio Jara called "Journey Third World", in which he walked from Talavera de la Reina to the site of GENE, a distance of about 125 kilometres. Some members of the group and the general public joined him as he approached the gallery.
Julio Jara and Pedro Roldán during the action.
Different pictures taken during the action by Pedro Roldán.
A witty letter of protest, published by El País newspaper, for the refusal of the director of a public gallery to show one of the works of Pedro Roldán.
GENE regularly sent this rejection letter to all the calls that asked for artists' work. We refused to submit our work to their awards, but encouraged them to try again next year.
A Sevicio Postal message about Berlusconi, already an infamous figure at the time.
Some of the Postal Service messages, among many:
En 2024 se mostró todo el material del Servicio Postal y gran parte de la documentación de GENE en una exposición en la biblioteca del Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofía de Madrid, comisariada por Cayetano Limorte.
GENE
Topía y revolución: 1986-1988
4 octubre, 2024 - 9 marzo, 2025 /
En enero de 1986, en el sótano de un bloque de viviendas del madrileño barrio de Chamberí, Maite Arratibel, Celia García Bravo, Nacho Pérez de la Paz y Pedro Roldán fundaban un espacio alternativo de arte bautizado, irónicamente, como Galería Nacional. A su vez, en enero de ese mismo año, Manuel Saiz ponía en funcionamiento el Servicio Postal de Exposiciones Múltiples y Propaganda, una iniciativa de arte postal presentada como “una revista no ortodoxa, en la que las páginas, los artículos, se reciben de uno en uno y por separado, una galería que en cada envío va a mostrar una obra a la casa del espectador y no al contrario”. Según la nota editorial, simple y llanamente, “una cuña de oposición artística”. Un proyecto colaborativo radical que, meses más tarde, confluiría con el espíritu crítico de los socios y amigos de la Galería Nacional, donde Manuel Saiz llega guiado por Julio Jara, compañero de exposiciones en la galería Villalar y temprano colaborador en ambos proyectos. Es a partir de ese encuentro, y junto a las aportaciones de otros artistas y teóricos como Javier Colis, José Díaz Cuyás, Celia Martín, Pamen Pereira o Alberto Vidarte, cuando deciden unir ambas iniciativas independientes en un proyecto común: GENE, una galería de producción colectiva editora de múltiples en formato postal.
Influidos por una amalgama de referentes que van de Kurt Schwitters a Joseph Beuys y de Lao-Tse a Gustav Landauer, y con una fuerte actitud de rechazo hacia las políticas culturales de ese nuevo Madrid progresista que había encontrado en la pintura un camino de vuelta al orden, la actividad de GENE se centró fundamentalmente en sus asiduas reuniones, tertulias que dieron como resultado, entre 1986 y 1988, setenta y siete envíos postales numerados de más de una veintena de artistas, diversas acciones y la creación de un sello editorial, GENE Ediciones. Iniciativas que, desde una total precariedad de medios y una marginalidad manifiesta, generaron redes alternativas de difusión de ideas artísticas y obras que, con su actitud, cortocircuitaron algunos espacios oficiales dedicados al arte. Un ejemplo de ello es la polémica provocada por Pedro Roldán en la muestra 13 jóvenes pintores organizada en el Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, cuando presentó como obra final tras haber pasado la selección con una propuesta diferente un trozo de papel con el dibujo de una lápida y el epígrafe “Espacio ganado/Espacio tomado”, firmada en nombre de GENE. O el cadáver de un perro atropellado presentado como obra colectiva a Punto 87, la muestra de arte joven anual organizada por el Ayuntamiento de Madrid.
GENE. Topía y revolución: 1986-1988 recoge, por vez primera, todo ese material inédito y diseminado hasta ahora en esta muestra documental dedicada al que fue uno de los grupos de resistencia artística antinstitucional más significativos del Madrid de los ochenta. Un colectivo ausente en la historia del arte español que, sin embargo, estuvo presente en la prensa oficial del momento por sus estrepitosas acciones. Pues como sus miembros afirman en la autoentrevista publicada en el séptimo número del periódico de arte Buades, “la obra de arte no es el objeto, sino la actitud. Una actitud liberalizadora del individuo y a través de él de la colectividad. Una actitud individual ante la vida/arte, la revolución y la muerte”.