Vittore Baroni
Bio:
Vittore Baroni (b.1956) is an Italian mail-artist, copy artist, musician,
musical critic and publisher who is also known as “Mister Bizarro”.
He is one of the most active and respected frequenters of the Mail-Art
circuit since the late seventies. Baroni came in contact with Mail-Art
in 1977 after a full page ad in an issue of the art magazine Flash
Art attracted his attention. It was an ad from the artist Guglielmo
Achille Cavellini (Italy) who was sitting on a bizarre bicycle
and offering free books to anyone who was interested. Baroni wrote
him and
started a correspondence with Cavellini. He organized his first
Mail-Art exhibition in 1979 in the ‘Forte dei Marmi’ town
library. In October of the same year he published the first issue of
his magazine Arte Postale! (1980-?). To house his
own personal Mail-Art publications such as Arte Postale! and
other materials related to his Mail-Art activities, Baroni created ‘Near
the Edge Editions’ in 1978. He also released several “plagiarist” cassettes
and records as the "multiple name" band ‘Lieutenant
Murnau, a project that ended in 1984. In 1981 he and Piermario Ciani founded
the international multimedia group ‘Trax’ together with Massimo
Giacon and a catalogue called Last Trax with a registration
of all artworks and activities made by ‘Trax’was published
in 1987. In 1992 they establish ‘The Stickerman Museum’as
a part of Ciani's ‘Stickerman Project, dedicated
to all forms of adhesive art. Ciani and Baroni founded AAA,
their own publishing house in 1996. They launched the ‘F.U.N.’(Funtastic
United Nations) project in 2002. Another name you might encounter in
Baroni's mailings is ‘Ethereal Open Network’ or ‘E.O.N.,
a name he gave to his Mail-Art archive, which has become rather a disordered
archive, stored in two rooms and several boxes.
Publications:
Futurgappismo : interventi / di Sarenco
... [et al.] ; a cura di Vittore Baroni e Carlo Battisti. Verona, Italy
: Edizioni Factotum-art, [1979] (curator) – Exhibition Catalog
Arte Postale (1980) - Periodical
Xerographica : mostra internazionale di fotocopie
d’autore. Udine, Italy : Campanotto Editore, 1985. (with
many other artists)
Vittore Baroni’s Mail art handbook.
Forte dei Marmi, Italy : Near the Edge Editions, [1986?]
I colori del rock : cartoline psichedeliche S.
Francisco 1965-1969. Roma : Stampa alternativa, 1989. – Artist
Book
Last Trax : resoconto finale del Progetto Trax
= final report of the Trax Project / [Baroni, Ciani, Giacon].
S.l. : s.n., 1990?]
Spider baby : reduction of. Ohio : Luna
Bisonte Prods, 1996 (With John M. Bennett.)
Sushi sickness. Columbus, Ohio : Luna Bisonte
Prods, 1996 (With John M. Bennett.)
Arte postale : guida al network della corrispondenza
creative. Bertiolo (Udine) : AAA, 1997.
A haw : a graphic poem thighs. Columbus,
OH : Luna Bisonte Prods, 1999 (With John M. Bennett.)
Household word arranger. Columbus, OH :
Luna Bisonte Prods, 1999 (With John M. Bennett.)
Read the instructions Columbus, Ohio : Luna
Bisonte Prods, 1999 (With C. Mehrl Bennett and John M. Bennett.)
Reburn to sender. Columbus, OH : Luna Bisonte
Prods, 1999 (With John M. Bennett.)
Film
e colonne sonore / di Vittore Baroni e Giona A. Nazzaro. Pavia
: Apache, 1999.
**Artistamps = francobolli d'artista /
James Warren Felter. Bertiolo, Italy : AAA Edizioni, 2000. (preface
by VB,
N6494.M35 F46 2000, Art Spec. Coll. )
Sources for obtaining more information about the artist:
Website: http://www.fulvioromanin.it/piermariociani/-
this is the website for Baroni’s publishing company. You can
buy books they have published and also work by Baroni and other artists.
Ruud, Janssen. Mail-interview with Vittore Baroni
(Italy). Tilburg, Netherlands : TAM-Publications, [1997] http://jas.faximum.com//library/tam/tam_52a.htm
Perneczky, Geza. Network Atlas: World and Publications
by the People of the First Network. Soft Geometry, Cologne. http://www.c3.hu/~perneczky/atlas.html (updated
April 2003). Vol. 1, pp. 36-45
Some biographical information obtained from Sztuka Fabryka
(2005). Mail-Art Encyclopaedia. http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be accessed
in April 2005.