Grenville, Bruce

Over the course of more than three decades of his work, the artist has produced many articulated “countries”, such as:

• Sultanate of Occussi-Ambeno ,
• Kingdom of all the Sedang (not to be confused with the famous in the history of the virtual Kingdom of Sedang ),
• Sultanate of Upper Yafa,
• People's Republic of Kempland ,

• Republic of Free Vinland ( Free Vinland Republic ),
• Republic of Liegerland ,
• Republic of Port Maria ,
• Tui Tui ( Tui Tui ),
• Aldabra
• Karenni
• Raoul
• Land of Muggy ,
• Cryonica
• Aramoana
• Wangamomona ( Whangamomona ),
• Lar? ( Lar? ),
• Nova Arcadia ,
• Antarctic Confederation and
• Khanate of Bokhara .

According to IDAC ^[2] , in the period from 1968 to December 21, 1995, the artist created 290 artmarks.

In Russia, the works of B. Grenville were demonstrated at the international exhibition "Mailartissimo 2004" in St. Petersburg from December 9, 2004 to January 15, 2005 ^[3] . The exhibition PostCardExpo-2008 , held January 24–27, 2008 at the Central House of Artists in Moscow , exhibited several stands with artmarks of artists from different countries, including Grenville.

Bruce Grenville received the greatest fame thanks to the artmarks and other hoaxes associated with the Sultanate of Okusi-Ambeno.

Self-proclaimed Sultanate

Grenville was directly involved in the development and implementation in the 1970s and 1980s of the idea of ​​a self-proclaimed virtual state - the Okusi-Ambeno Sultanate. This territory actually exists, is part of the island of East Timor and is 815 km². Once Okusi Ambeno was a Portuguese possession, but since 1975 it is part of Indonesia .

Playing on the fact that Europeans and Americans have a very poor idea of ​​the real situation on the islands of the Indian Ocean , Grenville and his friends conceived a grand hoax whose purpose was to proclaim a nonexistent state in this part of the island. For this purpose, carefully studying the available sources on the history and geography of Timor, Grenville compiled his own version of the history of this island, which included: the unification of the 18 tribes in 1848, in order to resist the Portuguese conquest, the long chain of rulers, the independence proclaimed in 1968 and, finally, a new state led by itself as a sultan . In terms of geography, a non-existent state was divided into seven provinces that enjoyed autonomy . The anarchist even managed to establish diplomatic relations with such dwarf states as Monaco , Liechtenstein , as well as the Republic of Minerva unrecognized by the international community.

Soon after, Grenville began working in a printing house and, gaining access to the multiplying equipment , issued many press releases telling about a non-existent state, some of which even went to European publications.

To be completely convincing, Grenville and his friends began issuing stamps , document forms , as well as maps, brochures on the history of the country, newspaper clippings about the civil war on the island, money samples and statistical reports on behalf of a non-existent state. Having created a complete sense of the reality of the existence of a dwarf state with beautiful stamps in the distant lands of European philatelists , Grenville received a significant income. The peak of his success came in 1977, when the European consortium signed a contract with the "Sultan" of a non-existent state for the issue of stamps in multicolor offset printing .

Okusi-Ambeno Political Doctrine

Inspired by the success of their jokes, Grenville and his friends, with the help of stamps and press releases of a non-existent state, began to actively promote their ideas, consisting of freeing people from state oppression and saving the environment.

So, in Okusi-Ambeno, unlike the really existing Muslim countries , the ban on alcohol did not apply - on the contrary, the manufacture of intoxicating drinks based on fly agaric flourished in it. The state’s navy was exclusively equipped with sailboats , which was reflected in the 1977 series of stamps, and air communication was supported by airships filled with helium . On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the first take-off of the hot air balloon in 1983, a series of stamps with images of the airships of the Sultanate were issued.

The Sultanate protested against the production and proliferation of nuclear weapons , releasing another brand on this occasion, on which a human figure dressed in a spacesuit destroyed everything around, and the inscription " Race of nuclear weapons ?"

The End of Hoax

The joke continued until the French publishers commissioned a group of ethnographers working in those parts to verify the Okusi-Ambeno Sultanate. In the area where the capital of the state appeared on the map, there was a small village typical of the Indonesian islands. The mystifier was not brought to trial, since there was no violation of New Zealand laws.

Grenville has always had a love for branding. After the Okusi-Ambeno artmarks, he created the artmarks of a number of states. The conference of such "countries" called the " International Council of Independent States" (abbreviated ICIS ) - a parody of ASEAN - was held in 2000 and today remains the first and only.

Grenville himself as follows summed up his adventure ^[4] :

This whole story gave us the opportunity to finance other projects. But, in addition, it was impossible to resist the temptation to check how far human gullibility could go. We also received considerable pleasure, bringing to an absolute absurdity the already complex geopolitical picture of the world. We believe that in the struggle for freedom against ossified traditions , all possible means should be used. And until now, it has never occurred to anyone with the help of a caricatured state to ridicule political ideals that have turned into an object of blind worship, in the manner of a sacred cow .

Original text

Apart from its ability to finance other projects you may have, the doors that are opened have to be experienced to be believed. The confusion that you can throw into the already complex world geopolitical scene is also fun. We feel that every possible unorthodox vehicle should be explored in the fight for freedom from Statism. Setting up an effigy of the sacred cow to satirise it appears to be one they have not taken into account at all.

The British television series Doctor Who , which tells of the mysterious doctor's journey through time and his struggle with the forces of evil, was shown on the BBC from 1963 to 1989. In January 1999, Grenville was lucky during a sale in Napier to stumble upon a lost episode of “Lion” ( “Lion” ) - the first of four parts of the series “The Crusade” ( The Crusade , 1965), relating to the second season of “Doctor Who”. A sixteen-millimeter film appeared literally at the last moment - the owner, who could not imagine what he owned, was about to throw it away. However, when the news hit the press, many reacted to it with caution - even before that time, Grenville was known as an avid hoaxer. However, the British company BBC confirmed the authenticity of the film found.

• Artimarka
• Stamps of virtual states

• State invented by anarchists // Black Star. - 1995. - No. 12.
• Bruce Grenville and the Utopian State of Occussi-Ambeno // The State Adversary. - 1987. - July. (eng.)

• “Bruce Grenville - New Zealand Anarchist” - an article by Yuri Geek with illustrations of Grenville’s work on the Mailart blog site
• The exhibition of artmarks of artists from different countries, including Grenville, at the exhibition " PostCardExpo-2008 " in Moscow on the site "mail_art_east"
• Image of one of the brands of Grenville on the site "Moscow artistamp Collection"
• "Sultanate of Okusi-Ambeno" - site of the Okushi-Ambeno Sultanate
• Bruce Grenville - artist page in the Jas Cyberspace Museum Jas W. Felter 's International Directory of Artmarker Creators (Canada )
• Member States of the International Council of Independent States on the ICIS website
• Bruce Grenville - Artist Page on Answers.com
• Doctor Who - BBC television series webpage
• “Lost Dr Who back on screen” - article about finding the lost episode of “Doctor Who” on the BBC News website