Marc Navarro

The mail art group SIEP (Sàpigues i Entenguis Produccions) was founded in Reus in 1981 and disbanded just three years later. Throughout its brief existence, nearly thirty people collaborated on the creation of more than fifty anonymous deliveries, which regularly arrived by mail to hundreds of recipients around the world. Llegir-ho ràpid. Una història de Sàpigues i Entenguis Produccions (Read It Fast. A Story About Sàpigues i Entenguis Produccions) traces the group’s trajectory through their work in the field of mail art, but also looks at other areas of the group’s output, such as the organization of exhibitions or their activities as a publishing platform.

The time of political transformation in which the group carried out its activities was marked by the emergence of an official culture that, while severing ties with the legacy of Francoism and exploring strategies for internationalization, also granted an increasingly important role to the art market and the institutional framework. With their postal mailings and other activities on the margins, the SIEP questioned the structures underpinning this transformation and pointed out their centralist and conformist character. While the group’s criticism of the art system, along with its references to politics, religion, and sexuality, conferred upon it a somewhat irreverent and provocative aura, with its ability to surprise and its humour, the SIEP devised a strategy to critically address the here and now, while combating feelings of anger and disenchantment.

Llegir-ho ràpid. Una història de Sàpigues i Entenguis Produccions