Poetry Goes Art & Vice Versa studies the emergence and international development of concrete and visual poetry since the 1950s. On the one hand, it relates Swiss representatives of visual poetry to the country’s historical, social, and cultural situation; on the other, it reveals the interrelations with international networks and their artistic forms.
Poetry Goes Art & Vice Versa studies the emergence and international development of concrete and visual poetry since the 1950s.
As the first-ever global form of literature and art based on aesthetic principles, visual poetry addresses the artistic transcendence of the boundaries between text, image, and music. International pioneers like Eugen Gomringer, Dieter Roth, Augusto and Haroldo de Campos, Öyvind Fahlström, Gerhard Rühm, and Franz Mon were instrumental in the emergence and development of this form of art. The parallel emergence of concrete poetry in Switzerland, Brazil, Sweden, and Austria took place despite geographical distance and different cultural and political situations.
The research results are presented to the wider public at an exhibition in the Studienzentrum für Künstlerpublikationen in Weserburg | Museum für moderne Kunst (21 May – 14 August 2011). The event is funded by the German Cultural Foundation. Opening: 20 May 2011, 7pm.
Alongside the exhibition, a symposium on “Poesie – Konkret” is held on 17 and 18 June 2011, 11am – 6pm. It explores the global dissemination and diversification of concrete poetry. Participants include international scholars and curators, artists and authors of concrete and visual poetry.
The project is a cooperation between the Institute for Cultural Studies, Zurich University of the Arts and the Forschungsverbund Künstlerpublikationen (Leading House) and the Museu de Arte Contemporânea der Universität São Paulo - MAC USP.