Scott Macleod

In October 1989 I had been invited by Alan Millar & John High of The Lab to perform the following September at the First International Festival of Contemporary Art in Moscow. Because of the relative worthlessness of the Soviet ruble after the November 89 devaluation and the lack of resources of our hosts in Moscow, the Center for Creative Initiatives for Peace, the 25 or so artists invited from San Francisco would have to pay our own travel expenses. I absolutely refused to miss out on the opportunity to visit and perform in Moscow but it made no sense to me to pay $1500 for a two-week trip. My solution was to pull every mail-art, alternative music, theatre and other magazines from my shelf and collect every address I could find for eastern Europe. I thought that if I could arrange a few paid performances here and there, I could plan an extensive tour which would justify the expense of travelling to Europe.

In many cases I had no information at all about who I was writing to, often not even knowing if I was writing to an individual or an organization. I prepared a one-page letter in which I explained who I was, what I had done, what I would like to perform and could they refer me to anyone who could help me if they could not. I also wrote to my friends in western Europe asking for help and referrals etc.


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