www.plexusinternational.org
A Day of Remembrance and Rejuvenation, New York

On July 4 of 1992, in New York, at CUANDO, William Parker and Jose Rodriguez organized a day of remembrance & rejuvenation:  a day to honor our heroes & mentors, to offer gifts to the spirit. Remembering the past (how we got here),  today (issues that confront us), the future (thing we must do in order to secure that a future will exist.)

It featured the music performances of William Parker, Jackson Krell, Lumi, Tony Feliciano, The War Hippies with Tom Corn, Matt Enger, Mark Enger, Santi Suaviro and many, many more. Participant artists were: Carol Blank, Lorenzo Pace, George Chaikin, Amir bey, Milene Bey, Charlotte Richardson, Michael Fitzgerald, Audrey Dolan, Virginia Jiminez, Wess Power, Ravi Blank, Nancy Wells, Tom Corn, Linda Hiwot, Santi Suaviro, David Cook, Rolando Politi, Ik-Joon Kang, Hamlet Zurita, Kazuko, Eileen Doster, Wolf, Radha Blank, Rasheed, Kelly B. Darr, Kali Fasteau, Siobhan Duffy, Celestino Boane, Ellie Ali, Mark Enger, Nilda Cortez, Drew Curtis, Hayato, El-Seleum, Al-Ibrahim, Derek Lester, Guevara Soliman, Vermon Bigman, Eve Hennessy. On this occasion, Jose Rodriguez presented the  CUANDO-Plexus Passport edited with Eddie Birchmore and with photos by Raymond Ross.

The numero zero was dedicated to Grady Alexis, a young Haitian painter who resided in the East Village and was brutally beaten on 8th Street, near 5th Avenue. He died as a result of massive head injuries.

From CUANDO Plexus Passport, by William Parker:

It is the role of the artist to dance, sing, shout and whisper about all that is wonderful, beautiful and majestic. To mirror and project the present and future, to tell us the stories inside little childrens’ hearts (giving us a view beyond the horizon).  Communicating by the language of stone, wood, wool and language of happiness, sadness and joy. It is the role of the artist to incite political, social and... spiritual revolution.  To awaken us from our sleep and never let us forget our obligations as human beings....  To light the fire of human compassion.  When this inner flame is burning man is uplifted to another state, his vision and sense are doubled he sees, hears and feels things he never did before.  The heat of the earth, the cry of living beings.  This fire is stoked by conviction, caring... communication with others. The idea is to live strongly within this vision without compromises even after being met by a cold grey world that could care less about vision, a world that makes insensitivity and murder of idealism and individualism a standard. It is the role of the artist to become a human being to see that the only art is the art of living, the artist must quickly make the transformation to human being and in the same breath come to realize he or she is a vehicle through which light passes.  We can flow and sing with this reality. Being a great artist is not enough.  One must be obsessed with the vision of life.  Art must transform to reality to a healing ritual a ceremony of the inner voice that says the only tradition is the tradition of life and living things, the tradition of the selfbeing created each moment.  The masterpiece must constantly be created.  Every year more creative beings have gone into the business of entertainment to make a dollar.  They make their music weaker for the sake of popularity; why not make it stronger for the sake popularity?  America was founded and is run on a palette of untruths and illusions in every area of life (War is though of as real while peace is a dream). Art can clarify life or it can help to reconfirm these lies.  It’s not...a matter of just staying alive and existing but living as full creative beings, beings who take the step not when it is safe or out of survival but as a process of living.  The way trees grow and the way flowers just appear out of nowhere. Most books and gestures about music, dance, painting, film, and the other art forms have rarely been written by the artist themselves...Art as life in America is defined and...controlled by the capitalist or the scientist, the curiosity seekers who play games with life.  To these people art is an ornament they look and promote music and dance that is technically polished, slick and does everything art is supposed to be according the guidelines of the 80’s.  They never really believe that art can change the heart of man.  To the theoretian and the intellectual art is never expected to be reality, this is what makes art, art.  They will not accept the idea that life is more important than art and that for any creative work to be valid on the same level as life that work must sing and swing from an unearthly reality.All the controlling factors of the world of the arts are a mirror of the controlling powers of the world (AMERICA).  The European Western capitalist.  The Afro-American creative music since its reception in the United States has been uprooted from ritual and healing to the status of entertainment.  Watered down, raped and pillaged by the money vendors and the so called jazz lovers to meet their own needs.  The black musician provides the creativity,  the capitalist producer control it, creating an industry off of not the meat of the music but off of the embellishment presenting the music on lesser terms making it more palatable.  The real music as any real art causes change,  it asks man to question and not to live with lies and injustices.  We have entered the 80’s with our eyes still red from the sleepiness of the 70’s.  America is a deep sleep, the revolution of today consists of machines replacing people and people acting like machines, dancing robots and digital watches.  This is the age of electronics and instant death.  Acoustic human energy is frowned upon, everyone is trying to take the easy way out.  No longer can the creative musician sit back and let others define him, he is labelled and catalogued, interviewed, produced, recorded, bought and sold by people with tin ears and souls.  If the musician believes in life then he must define himself and not be manipulated. The Bill Collector is a newsletter written by the artist who wishes to define and share his existance with others, in what is once again a move toward self-determination.

 

During this period, also The numero zero was dedicated to Grady Alexis, a young Haitian painter who resided in the East Village and was brutally beaten on 8th Street, near 5th Avenue. He died as a result of massive head injuries.

From CUANDO Plexus Passport, by William Parker:

It is the role of the artist to dance, sing, shout and whisper about all that is wonderful, beautiful and majestic. To mirror and project the present and future, to tell us the stories inside little childrens’ hearts (giving us a view beyond the horizon).  Communicating by the language of stone, wood, wool and language of happiness, sadness and joy. It is the role of the artist to incite political, social and... spiritual revolution.  To awaken us from our sleep and never let us forget our obligations as human beings....  To light the fire of human compassion.  When this inner flame is burning man is uplifted to another state, his vision and sense are doubled he sees, hears and feels things he never did before.  The heat of the earth, the cry of living beings.  This fire is stoked by conviction, caring... communication with others. The idea is to live strongly within this vision without compromises even after being met by a cold grey world that could care less about vision, a world that makes insensitivity and murder of idealism and individualism a standard. It is the role of the artist to become a human being to see that the only art is the art of living, the artist must quickly make the transformation to human being and in the same breath come to realize he or she is a vehicle through which light passes.  We can flow and sing with this reality. Being a great artist is not enough.  One must be obsessed with the vision of life.  Art must transform to reality to a healing ritual a ceremony of the inner voice that says the only tradition is the tradition of life and living things, the tradition of the selfbeing created each moment.  The masterpiece must constantly be created.  Every year more creative beings have gone into the business of entertainment to make a dollar.  They make their music weaker for the sake of popularity; why not make it stronger for the sake popularity?  America was founded and is run on a palette of untruths and illusions in every area of life (War is though of as real while peace is a dream). Art can clarify life or it can help to reconfirm these lies.  It’s not...a matter of just staying alive and existing but living as full creative beings, beings who take the step not when it is safe or out of survival but as a process of living.  The way trees grow and the way flowers just appear out of nowhere. Most books and gestures about music, dance, painting, film, and the other art forms have rarely been written by the artist themselves...Art as life in America is defined and...controlled by the capitalist or the scientist, the curiosity seekers who play games with life.  To these people art is an ornament they look and promote music and dance that is technically polished, slick and does everything art is supposed to be according the guidelines of the 80’s.  They never really believe that art can change the heart of man.  To the theoretian and the intellectual art is never expected to be reality, this is what makes art, art.  They will not accept the idea that life is more important than art and that for any creative work to be valid on the same level as life that work must sing and swing from an unearthly reality.All the controlling factors of the world of the arts are a mirror of the controlling powers of the world (AMERICA).  The European Western capitalist.  The Afro-American creative music since its reception in the United States has been uprooted from ritual and healing to the status of entertainment.  Watered down, raped and pillaged by the money vendors and the so called jazz lovers to meet their own needs.  The black musician provides the creativity,  the capitalist producer control it, creating an industry off of not the meat of the music but off of the embellishment presenting the music on lesser terms making it more palatable.  The real music as any real art causes change,  it asks man to question and not to live with lies and injustices.  We have entered the 80’s with our eyes still red from the sleepiness of the 70’s.  America is a deep sleep, the revolution of today consists of machines replacing people and people acting like machines, dancing robots and digital watches.  This is the age of electronics and instant death.  Acoustic human energy is frowned upon, everyone is trying to take the easy way out.  No longer can the creative musician sit back and let others define him, he is labelled and catalogued, interviewed, produced, recorded, bought and sold by people with tin ears and souls.  If the musician believes in life then he must define himself and not be manipulated. The Bill Collector is a newsletter written by the artist who wishes to define and share his existance with others, in what is once again a move toward self-determination.

Rolando Politi developed further the concept of Plexus as a community-based Sweat Equity Cartel project for artists in the first person.

From Plexus a Sweat Equity Cartel by Rolando Politi:

Plexus International as a “Sweat Equity Cartel of Art” is a beautiful creative tool for a paterniship of “the artists in the first person” to exchange his own work without filters or barriers. The “Open Market” eventually will recognize the Cartel, particularly when the issue is the international debt of the Third World vs. the First World, and the role of the artists in the first person for a world route correction in the use of human resources. The currency unit of exchange in the cartel is the “Plexonian” which is equivalent to one ECU (European Currency Unit), one dollar is about one and half ECU. The Plexonian was designed by Micaela Serino in Rome in 1991 as her contribution to the development of the “Plexus Black Bag” project. The Plexonian money will be printed in a limited edition to support the Cartel and the voyage of the Elisabeth from Sardinia to Gorée, Dakar. 

The Plexonian money will be certified by Plexus International Storage and delivered to Plexus Dakar in order to be presented to the Minister of Culture of Senegal for the approval of the Government in support of the Plexus project of the opening of Plexus World Art Bank in Gorée, Dakar. To get some amount of Plexonians it is necessary to donate to the Plexus Cartel of “Sweat Equity” an equivalent amount of value in labour or art works, in reference to building the Art Bank. Example: Sandro, Plexus 23s, buys a “Robotcap 3,” an original certified Plexus art work by Rolando, Plexus 43, for 1000 Plexonians. “Robotcap 3” will receive the certificate of original Plexus work by Plexus International Storage after the Storage has received from Plexus 43 all documentation of that specific art work and verified with the monitoring unit that the member has full credit for what presented as true source of it. Plexus 23s has available an amount of Plexonians against a quantity of labour made by him in support of the Cartel’s activities. Plexus 23s pays in cash 1000 Plexonians to Plexus 43. Rolando will have credit inside the network of the Cartel to buy for an amount of 1000 Plexonians a quantity of products or labors listed in the “Plexus Black Bag,” the shopping tool for the members of the cartel and diffused through internet within the “Plexus Black Box”. Plexus members will receive a plastic card membership with a personal ID. number, which will allow to have access to the Cartel’s activities and to receive the last news with a list of the new works offered and of what was sold, with relative bids (quotations) in Plexonian currency. How to become a member of the Plexus cartel? Plexus International Network is the tool we use to create “value” and is available only to Plexus members. Einstein theorized: “Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it is only transferred” and you as the artist in the first person must initially invest “creative time” measured with “sweat equity” into the network and reinvest the “values” (Plexonian money) received for the initial work back into the network.  You and each and every member keeps on reinvesting into the Web until such time as your work is demanded by the outside market and you decide to exchange (sell) it for hard currency (real money). At this point in time your work leaves the network and you give to Plexus a % of the hard currency.  (Sometimes, there could be as many as three layers of commissions of % to be involved in this selling process) These commissions from the different entities involved will be in exchange for the value created by the network in launching your work.Plexus Art Bank, in Gorée, Dakar, will issue the Plexonian money in exchange of a 1% or 2% commission of its face value. One Plexonian will be equivalent to an hard currency. Plexus Black Bag, in Rome, is the marketing arm of the network and will receive a commission to be determined individually and when “works” are sold for hard currency through this arm. Plexus International Passport, in New York, is the newsletter of the network.  In each issue, the newsletter will list works offered and sold including the list of their latest Plexonian value.  This system will work like the “Bid/Ask System” used in all the counter financial markets. It is important to remember that between members you can only trade in Plexonians, no hard currency.  Continuous trade between members is therefore always encouraged.  Obviously any work will have ultimately a realistic chance to be sold in the outside market if it achieves a magical balance between inside and outside market dynamics.  It is important to remember also that you as “the artist in the first person” do really and truly control the entire toy mechanism.  Trades and contributions of sweat equity and creative time will also be printed in this newsletter. Plexus International Storage, in Cagliari, Sardinia, will certify and document your work as true and original.  It will act as a screening agent.  Documents and works can periodically be used to organize shows and travelling exhibitions.  In essence the Storage will act as a promotional tool to generate interest and value. These four bodies are the major pillars upon which this international network can be built. You can leave the network at any time.  Just do not renew your membership and removed your work from the Storage and therefore from “Plexus Black Bag”. You cannot however have back the value of your sweat equity contribution out of the network in Plexonian or in hard currency.  You will leave it as your contribution to the network while you were member enjoying all benefits that such a membership brought to you.