Event Fri 20 Feb 2026
18h

Friday 20 February at 6pm
2, place Lamartine — Arles

Opening remarks, letter readings, and an aperitif to the sound of the brass band Lady Maga & les Saxtoys.

 

On February 20, 2026, exactly 138 years after Vincent van Gogh’s arrival in Arles in 1888, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles will inaugurate a mailbox dedicated to the Dutch painter.
Designed by artist Domenico de Clario in partnership with the City of Arles and the French postal service La Poste, it will be installed in the Place Lamartine, at the very address of the famous Yellow House where Van Gogh lived and worked for several months.

The public is warmly invited to the inauguration, which will mark both the installation of a permanent contemporary artwork in Arles to commemorate the former site of the house, and the start of a long-term initiative encouraging people to write to Vincent van Gogh.

 

Vincent van Gogh, La Maison Jaune (« La Rue »), Arles, 1888
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent Van Gogh Foundation)

 

As a tribute to the artist’s epistolary talent, the mailbox represents an open call to people of all ages, from near and far, to write freely to Van Gogh on any topic they like, or to respond to his life and work or the themes he addressed in his own extensive correspondence.

At a time in which the art of letter writing is becoming less and less prominent, and the number of letters we write is diminishing drastically, this “mailbox-artwork” is an invitation to rediscover the joys of a practice the artist consistently used to share his most private thoughts and artistic ideas with family and friends.

 

HOW TO WRITE TO VAN GOGH
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PARTICIPATING

Letters can be dropped off from February 20 at 6:00 pm.
Postal delivery will begin on February 21.

Vincent van Gogh
La Maison jaune
2, place Lamartine
13200 Arles
France

All letters received will be read by a committee appointed by the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles. They will serve as a public, literary testimony to the painter that is expansive in content, impact, and scope.

The letters will also be archived at the Fondation and will be shared with the public in various ways – through readings and publications or educational and artistic projects. The initiative will thus be extended to enable the rediscovery of Vincent van Gogh’s correspondence and to encourage letter writing on a broader scale.

• Anyone can participate, regardless of age, and can write freely on any topic

• In order to contextualize each letter, it is recommended to include your first name, your age, and your city and country of residence. It is, however, also possible to write anonymously.

• Including an email address is strongly recommended. This will be used to confirm receipt of the letter and to communicate any further use of your letter.

• Letters may be written in any language; however, only those written in French, English, Italian, German, or Spanish will be able to be read.

• Only letter format is acceptable (no packages).

• Letters sent by regular post must have sufficient postage attached.

• Depositing or mailing a letter constitutes permission for publication or public reading.

• Personal information is handled in conformity with European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations)

 

A WORK BY DOMENICO DE CLARIO

Jean de Loisy, Artistic Director of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, invited interdisciplinary artist Domenico de Clario to design the mailbox.

Writing, memory, and communication are key elements in the work of Domenico de Clario, who is now based in Arles. He was born in Trieste, Italy, in 1947 and his family moved to Australia when he was a child. There he studied architecture and fine arts and has been developing a body of work that combines performance, music, installation, and writing since the mid-1960s.

His connection to Vincent van Gogh began at an early age and is a very personal one: he wrote his first letter to Vincent at the age of eight, a gesture that would inform his whole artistic career.

The sculpture designed for this initiative is made up of two brass boxes, stacked on top of one another, symbolizing the two floors of the Yellow House, engraved with quotes from letters written by both Vincent van Gogh and Domenico de Clario.

 

ORIGIN OF THE INITIATIVE

Vincent van Gogh maintained a close connection with his loved ones through his dedication to letter writing – to date, there are 820 known letters. In them, he shared details of his daily life, his professional highs and lows, his artistic and literary inspirations, his friendships, and his passion for art, which was at the core of his decision to lead the life of an artist, with the unwavering support of his brother Theo. Today, these letters constitute a major literary legacy: they are both inseparable from his paintings and key to an understanding of his thinking.

The Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles focuses on the influence of Van Gogh’s work and thought on contemporary artistic production, drawing specifically on his letters to explore how the Dutch painter’s practice and the challenges he faced resonate with contemporary artists.

The exhibition To Vincent : A Winter’s Tale, presented at the Fondation until April 26, 2026, is a perfect illustration of this. It brings together the work of twenty-one artists whose work aligns with the themes explored in Van Gogh’s letters, helping to fulfill his desire to be “a link in the chain of artists” and recalling his wish to make the Yellow House a collaborative space for artists.

In addition, writer and musician Louise Chennevière and novelist and journalist Sylvain Prudhomme were invited by the Fondation to write to Vincent van Gogh, and their letters to him are published in the exhibition catalogue.

 

EXPLORE  VAN GOGH’S FULL CORRESPONDENCE: VANGOGHLETTERS.ORG 
An editorial project developed by the Van Gogh Museum and the Huygens Institute.

VINCENT VAN GOGH
Lettre à Paul Gauguin,
21 janvier 1889, Arles
Musée Réattu, Arles