THE MAILBOX

THE MAILBOX
AN INTERACTIVE OPEN-AIR MUSEUM
Already for some time in Italy, but also everywhere in
the world, there is the tendency to close and remove
mailboxes. Unfortunately, I also got confirmation of
this via email from Niels Lomholt, a Danish mailartist
with an impressive archive of mail art: “… thanks for
the post some months ago, I would have replied, but
there are no mailboxes left in this country, and you
can no longer buy stamps. I guess it is an end to mail
art as we knew it!! Sad!”
The immoderate use of social media and email is
relegating the “normal” mail to an increasingly
obsolete communicational use, forgetting how
important instead is also the tactile, visual and in
some cases even olfactory “solicitation” that mail,
precisely normal mail, can transmit. Not to mention
the pleasure one receives in opening an envelope
sent perhaps from the other side of the world and the
“mystery” that is revealed as soon as it is opened.
And what happened to Writing?!
The Writing with a capital “W,” the writing done with a
pen and not by pressing a key, with the firm gesture,
with the “brushstroke” of the pen, with the subtle or
deep mark that shaped the letter and presented the
character of the writer sometimes even more than the
content of the letter itself?
Now all this is being abolished in favor of faster
dissemination and at the expense of a more personal
and less homogenized communication, so: let's shut
the mailboxes mouths!
Once irreplaceable elements of the urban fabric, but
now considered obsolete and useless. What will be
the next victim to be sacrificed on the altar of
modernity and progress? the post office?! A place
that will survive perhaps only as a sales outlet for
various items and services, like any bank, like an
insurance office… anything but a post office, thus
effectively betraying the primary function for which it
was created.
Who among us posting a letter or postcard in a
mailbox has not felt a thrill in entrusting his or her
message to a hole, the inside of which cannot be
seen? A bit like inserting one's hand into the famous
Mouth of Truth, with the feeling of never being able to
take it out again!
In Piazza Bocca della Verità is the ancient marble
mascherone, one of Rome's most famous symbols, placed
since 1632 in the pronaos of the Basilica of Santa Maria in
Cosmedin. The marble disk has the features of a male face
with a pierced beard, eyes, nose, and mouth-perhaps of
Jupiter, a faun, or a river deity- flanked by several symbols,
including a scarab, two claws, and two wolf heads. William
Wyler's film Vacanze Romane (1953), starring Audrey
Hepburn and Gregory Peck, established the Mouth of Truth to
undisputed international fame.
Dear Friend,
for the upcoming M.A.D. Mail Art Day 2025
that we are planning for this year and to be held in
Senigallia and Montecarotto (AN) at the Museum of
Information and Museum of Mail Art, respectively.
YOU ARE INVITED
_ to “ADOPT” a POSTAL BOX in your city, town,
or other place by affixing to it, after printing it in
postcard size, the attached image of the Mouth of
Truth
_ photograph the mailbox you applied the image to.
_ print the photo on an A4-size card on which you
will intervene with your desired technique, expressing
your own thoughts on the theme of closing mailboxes
_ write place and day when the photo was taken
_ on the back write, in block letters and legibly:
first name, last name, mailing address, email.
_ send by Post by JULY 31, 2025 to:
Ruggero Maggi
C.so Sempione 67
20149 Milano
Italy
for non-European foreign on the envelope write:
DOCUMENTI SENZA VALORE COMMERCIALE
NO COMMERCIAL VALUE DOCUMENTS
DOCUMENTOS SIN VALOR COMERCIAL
The works will remain in the Amazon Archive of
Ruggero Maggi or at such other institution as may be
deemed appropriate.
Good work!
Ruggero