PIPILOTTI RIST — Swiss Post Special Stamp, 100 Helvetia, 2014

Issued by Swiss Post on 13 November 2014 as part of a special stamp series dedicated to the five senses, Rist's contribution chose taste: two enlarged tongues face one another across a small white field, separated by the denomination line reading 100 HELVETIA.

The image contains its own postal logic. At the time of issue, Swiss Post noted that more than half of Swiss stamps were still gummed and required moistening before use. Rist turned that ordinary physical action into the subject of the stamp itself.

By 2014, Rist had moved from experimental video into vast, immersive environments concerned with colour, the body and sensory experience. Here the same territory is reduced to one of the smallest formats available to an artist: a piece of paper designed to be touched, attached and sent away.

This example has completed that movement. Used and cancelled in Bern, the postal mark crosses the upper tongue. The artwork entered circulation, performed its administrative function and survived.

A very small artist multiple with an unusually complete biography.

3 × 5 cm · 100 centimes / CHF 1.00 denomination · Printed, perforated and gummed postage stamp · Used example with partial BERN postal cancellation

Condition: Good used condition. Postally used with cancellation to recto; perforations remain well preserved. Reverse shows evidence consistent with prior postal use.