Guglielmo Achille Cavellini achieved much of his fame by re-inventing himself as a famous artist and largely promoting himself by posting thousands of Cavellini stickers literally everywhere, along with invented press releases in the cities he visited. He had been previously famous as a savvy world class art collector, born into the wealthy Cavellini estate in Italy in 1914. He decided, one day, that he would rather be famous for his own work and so concocted made up articles and printed entire magazines praising his own work. He invented the term autostoricizzazione (self-historicization) I have delighted, so many times, in considering Cavellini's bold, flashy and irrepressible style and comportment that resulted in his world class status - as 'made up' as it actually was. Let me just add, that I love Cavellini - and, although dead, it is nothing short of a mail art prophecy, that he shall return (somehow) in 2014! (Perhaps that is why the "Una Vita" title here is somewhat hilarious).
Here, are Cavellini's own words regarding his fame: "The biography of an artist is frequently written after his death, imperfectly and incompletely. Since I don't want any such biography to be written about me, I've decided to write my own"!
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