on 7/5/05 5:41 PM, Guido Vermeulen at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thank you so much for sharing your day for Marilyn..I didn't know her but now feel as I do a little...and what a great friend in you she had...i felt as though i was there in the garden and seeing all the gifts and altar to her....thanks again...it always gives me pleasure reading your emails.. junanne
> June 26, 2005 Shadow celebration in Brussels, Belgium > > May 22, our good friend and network artist Marilyn Dammann died after a > short fight against a general cancer. Her friends and family invited me for > a celebration of her life and art the weekend of June 25-26. > > Because I could not afford another trip to the USA I started thinking on > how to turn the frustration into a very positive energy wave. So I came up > with the idea to turn June 26 into an international memory day to honor > Marilyn, aka Shadow. > > Let's unite in the same time frame all efforts of the mail art network > around one person we all loved and admired. So I spread a call in this > sense by email and by regular mail and asked also to mail me expressions of > grief and love and artistic actions that took place on that day. The > intention was to unite them and forward these collections to Marilyn's > children and friends. > > It was Guy De Boeck, a Brussels' poet and Friour zine contributor, who > reacted back by saying: "You're not going to do this on your own, hey! > Let's all come together" > > So instead of a personal celebration I started inviting other artists and > friends to come to my flat that day. The idea was a simple one. Come and > bring something and let's share all what we have. > > The week preceding that Sunday Belgium suffered from a heat wave but near > the end of the week it cooled down and on June 26 the weather was perfect: > a sunny day without being too hot. > > I cleaned my flat in the morning and put all the chairs I had in the > garden. The number of chairs was 12: 6 regular ones and 6 garden ones. What > if more than 12 people came? I'll improvise. I also organized an exhibition > in the flat by putting on the dinner table a selection of Marilyn's art > books and journals. Another table became a shrine. I put her picture on a > roll of birch bark amongst turtle objects coming from all the continents on > the globe. The turtles had come to me as the result of one of my mail art > projects: Turtle Visions. I had been burning incense on that table close to > her picture since the news she had passed away. Final touch was perhaps to > put a feather of a blackbird close to the photo and the incense burner. It > was to include David Stone in the celebration. He was grieving like me, > aware we all lost a very good friend and mail art contributor. > > Another American artist was very present in the celebration: Lavona > Sherarts. > > Not only because of the turtle objects (her turtles were amongst the first > to arrive) but also because she had made a special book for the occasion, a > book in Marilyn's spirit she had called it and she was right about that. > The cover of the book was made of birch bark again and the pages inside > were blank. Everybody who came to the celebration could leave a personal > message in this guest book. I also intended mailing this book to Baraga. > > Another person who helped me tremendously for the June 26 Day was Rob > Grantinks from Australia. First he had created an international logo for > that day and then he came up also with the idea of a sticker to glue on our > mail. I put his design based on Marilyn's final signature (Love, Light & > Magic) in a table for labels and printed them to use them on my own > mailings spreading this event. > > I attached a page on my front door with logo, sticker and a photo of > Marilyn. > > I had also been spreading around in my mail a postcard edition of a collage > Marilyn made together with her picture in ATC size. > > I had been writing to people since weeks. It was a ritual of grief I needed > very badly for myself. > > When I had asked people to document what they did June 26 and to mail me > the results, most mail artists did not wait that long. For some it was like > a project, so they reacted immediately. For many others the desire to > express their own feelings of loss to me and to the family was so > overwhelming they needed to react and express themselves right away. > > Reading all this mail was like a balm, sometimes painful, sometimes an > alleviation of pain, healing and comforting, an expression of love for > someone who had loved herself so much, saw love as the antidote for fear > and hate and war. Marilyn was a generous spirit, in complete balance with > nature and her environment. She had had a full life and her goodbye to this > earthly existence had been one also in balance and without regrets. Regrets > were for those who stayed behind, we cry for ourselves in fact. It was part > of her message in the last telephone conversation I had with her in April. > > I played "non, je ne regrette rien" (a well known Edith Piaf song) right > after that phone call. > > On the table with Marilyn's books and journals I placed a box with all the > received mail concerning Shadow's passing. Another box contained > contributions to Earth Charter, my latest project and the last one with a > contribution from Marilyn, more ways to connect networkers from all around > the world with the memento. > > Around noon the phone started ringing. Miche Vandenbrouck who wanted to > come to the gathering with some food and wanted to take the train from > Merksplas to Brussels told me that trains did not run, so she could not > make it. Because of the heat an upper electrical line broke down and it was > not repaired yet. > > I told her not to worry because she was so sorry she could not be there. > > Second phone call from Virginie, one of the nuclear medical experts on my > job. She lives around the corner and I had invited her and boyfriend to > come and visit me that day. > > She said yes but forgot she had already an appointment for visiting her > mum. > > Third was an email from Wout, local leader of the progressive Spirit party. > He had expressed the desire to be there but could also not make it because > he was ill. > > Fourth was another email from Luc Fierens telling me his father had died. > So he had his own mourning preparations to go through. > > Fifth were my Liege friends. Jack Ross wanted to come with her daughters > but because of financial and personal problems they also could not make the > journey. > > It was Guy De Boeck who explained me the reasons later during the day. > > But then people started pouring in till the 12 chairs were filled. I was > amazed because it was a perfect match and because of the international > character of the gathering. > > We were with 4 natives from Belgium: Guy, me, Liza Leyla and Geert De > Decker. > > Liza and Geert met Marilyn during her visit to Belgium in 1998. Liza and > Marilyn had been very close and they maintained a regular correspondence > since the encounter. > > Liza writes and publishes poetry books and intends to publish a new edition > around one of Marilyn's art works. Geert is one of the organizers of the > alternative arts and music festival. In 1998 he introduced Marilyn and me > to the village of Doel, harbor of one of nuclear power plants in the > country, a village doomed to disappear because more docks will be build. > > Bernd Reichert joined the party as well. Bernd lives in Brussels with his > family. They are from former Eastern Germany. > > Two Italians showed up: Enzo Ferrari and his partner. They are recent > correspondents. Enzo was introduced to mail art by Anna Boschi and lives in > the same neighborhood as Bernd. So I was able to introduce them to Bernd > and to tell them they are neighbors! > > A mixed couple from Uruguay and Argentina came also to the celebration: > Sandra Petrovich and Gervasio. I met Sandra first during an edition of the > Brussels' art rally of St Gilles (a 2 yearly event where the public is able > to meet artists where they live or work). Later we connected again during > the visit of Alicia Zarate. Alicia is from Argentina and is behind the > project "Water is Blue Gold", a project on water as a political & > economical issue. Of course they all know Clemente Padin. > > Sandra had done an installation in a Brussels' park to honor Marilyn and > emailed me the photo just before going to my flat. She also made a beaut > iful object. She surrounded Marilyn's photo with flower petals and glued > them on rags she uses to clean her paintbrushes. The result is quite > colorful, almost cheerful. Also Marilyn's picture was attached to the image > of a balloon. > > Another object I'm receiving from Marina. She made a pretty ring and asks > me to mail this to one of Marilyn's daughters. Marina is from Serbia and a > friend of Dobrica Kamperelic. Dobrica stayed the first night at her flat > during his visit to Belgium. Second night he stayed with me. Marina is > accompanied by 2 friends: another Serbian networker who explains he was > part of a movement in Yugoslavia called "shamanism and renaissance". So > suddenly I could understand why these people could relate so well to > Shadow, a person they never met or knew as correspondent. A second friend > explained he has mixed roots: Lebanese and Egyptian but is married to a > Flemish woman. > > So the conversation jumps from Dutch to French to English while we all > enjoy in the shades of the garden fruit juices, coca cola, red , rose and > white wines. > > Bowls of Turkish Delight sweets and 2 kind of chips accompany the > beverages. > > The ants in the garden join the party by feasting also on the Turkish > delight, a sign to start a conversation on "organic food". > > The conversation shifts from food issues to mail art to everybody's > background to art and poetry to books and the problems of translations to > the stories of 1001 nights to the political situation in various countries > to existence in general and our own in particular. > > It's light in tone even when we exchange reflections on serious matters. > > From time to time we raise the glass to toast on Marilyn's life and being. > > Her books are widely admired and everybody's leaving a message in Lavona's > guest book. Marina insists I read one of my poems, so I read the first one > I wrote connected with Marilyn's passing. It's a poem I wrote in April > during Dobrica's visit and that I finished just before phoning to Marilyn > for the last time. Afterwards I realized it was a poem on her death, so I > knew without knowing. It was also this poem that was read by Marilyn's > friend Bonnie at the opening of the first tribute exhibition in Baraga on > June 3. > > We talked for a while on "psychic" things connected with art. > > Liza was the last person to leave. We continued talking till late in the > evening. Later Liza will email me the gathering was really "in Marilyn's > spirit". It had been a "perfect" day. > > Postal Greetings, > > Guido Vermeulen > http://groups.msn.com/POPOPEINT/guidovermeulenartiste.msnw > > > " If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then > there'd be peace." > > - John Lennon - > > > > > > > > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Mailinglist from Sztuka Fabryka > http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be/ > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mailinglist from Sztuka Fabryka http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ma-network/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
