A Postcard for Floyd is a participatory mail art project that transforms the tragedy of George Floyd’s death into a collective reflection on xenophobia and systemic injustice, particularly how they manifest and are perceived from a white vantage point. The project does not claim to represent Floyd’s story, but instead invites a difficult and personal reckoning with how bias and complicity operate within white-majority contexts.
The significance of this reflective process would be amplified by exhibiting the project at the Arsenale in Venice, a site whose complex history of encounter, commerce and, at times, exploitation offers a resonant context.
The work takes its cue from 9 photographs, one for each of the dramatic minutes of the tragedy. A flame that gradually disappears. At first, the smoke traces the presence; then everything disappears into the deep black of the image.
The artist selected one image, turning it into a postcard, which was then distributed across Italy. Recipients were invited to return the postcard with a response related to the project.
Each of the more than 550 postcards returned so far, including by prominent members of the Italian art and cultural community, became part of a living archive, later published in an internationally distributed volume by Skira.
The Black community contributed significant written reflections. Notable voices include Adama Sanneh (CEO, Moleskine Foundation), Angelica Pesarini (University of Toronto), Luisa Wizzy Casagrande (Metissage Sangue Misto Founder), and poet Rahama Nur.
A Postcard for Floyd has also recently given birth to The Plot Foundation, whose mission is to embrace art as a means for exploring and communicating the mechanisms of behavioural neuroscience, particularly in relation to prejudice and fear, while suggesting
new pathways for critical reflection and empathy.
A Postcard for Floyd is a project that allows for modular installations. In the context of Arte Laguna, it can be easily installed while fully respecting the space constraints outlined in your call for entries.
