“If one would only imagine a small collection illustrated without

malice. And make use of it. These cards are suitable for everyone,

enemies and friends alike. We know it, no one is indifferent.”

Paul Nougé

This publishing project arose out of a conviction: Belgium, on both sides of the linguistic border, is bursting with artists of all shapes and sizes, iconoclastic, subversive and joyous; among them all those who skilfully mix words and images, perpetuating a tradition planted long ago in the loose soil of the outer-language territories. Little or unknown to the public, these works are often only frequented by a small circle of initiates, lovers of curiosa and private publications which Belgium has made its specialty.  The original intention of this project was to provide a greater, or rather an enhanced, presence to this country of irregulars of whom we so often hear it said, like a quiet complaint, that they don’t know how to “sell” themselves. By choosing as our medium the postcard, klet & ko proposes to bring out of the shadows, a series of artistic productions as refreshing to the eye as to the spirit.  In contrast to a book, the postcard is never closed: temptress, always in the balcony, gifted with immediate poetic effect, she offers herself, unveiled, to the public eye, a public that she loves to titillate from the heights of the revolving display. Finally and most importantly, the vocation of this ancestral rectangle of bristol card is to circulate: a hyphen between beings, the postcard makes the generous pretence of cancelling the distance she embodies – an exercise which we firmly believe she is prepared to address. Such is the soil, quickly potted, in which this desire to publish germinated. And so, in 2006, an initial collection of cards spanning word and image saw the light of day with the complicity of Yellow Now : 24 cartes à jouer, envoyer ou abattre (“24 cards to play, send or show”) proposing a selection of works by Daniel Arnaut, François de Coninck, Dries Meddens and Laurent d’Ursel. In 2007, for the inauguration of the BOZAR SHOP, a new collection was created, which opened its doors to contemporary art from Belgium and elsewhere as long as it had the same spirit - subversive, humorous or grave, but never serious - that presided over the first collection. Through encounters and affinities other projects have developed which allow the continued circulation of the “klet” spirit: joyous, light, biting, unpredictable and refreshing. May the “correspondance” dance, as it is only though the dance that our thinking is enhanced!

François de Coninck , may 2009