I received the last postcard in the summer of 2020, and I believe the previous one was in 2010. Of letters, apart from bills and invoices from DHL, I receive very little. The rare, highly appreciated, handwritings are filed with maniacal care. To enter into the merits of art, even the few papers that were circulating recently took a beating: press releases and printed curatorial texts are rare and, due to covid, the handy pdf is preferred (mea culpa, I also me now).

Although the intent of the exhibition is not nostalgic, nor is it an invitation (wink wink) to return to the use of paper in communication, we want to celebrate two things with it. The first is the important role that the Arengario Studio Bibliografico has played over the years, namely that of collecting, preserving and cataloging thousands of artist invitations. The second, the seminal commitment that originated these products, some of them on display: artists, gallery owners, graphic designers, typographies who in a particular historical period (1950s - 1990s) have often invested in the creation of invitations at its exhibitions, as much energy and passion as in the works presented. Not to mention the countless examples where the invitation itself represents the work! I am thinking of the case of Robert Barry, of which we present three invitations-works.

The exhibition is also an opportunity for the launch of a paper mailing list and for the presentation of a poster that presents, on the one hand, the list of almost 100 selected artists, and on the other, the images of all the invitations on display. Always in the wake of the importance of paper, there is also the presentation of 6 posters by Treccani Arte, belonging to "Definition", a series of objects for every day, created to rediscover the importance of an immense common cultural heritage : the Italian language. Treccani Arte was born in 2019 and aims to promote a universal dissemination of knowledge in the artistic field, through the production of exhibitions, artist multiples and publications dedicated to Italian and international contemporary art.