From Concrete to Liquid to Spoken Worlds to the Word

The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève presents a major exhibition dedicated to contemporary poetry. In recent years, art has shown a revived interest in the written and the spoken-word world. A new generation of artists has responded to the lead taken by the web and social media in re-introducing the poetic form to a world that had lost touch with the phonic.

 

Art and poetry shape one another in an increasingly interconnected global culture, through an ongoing rhapsodic communication. Words follow images, that follow words. Texts are drawn from videos, performances, and songs, as well as quotes and phrases from the web and its social networks, popular memes and pop cultural artefacts. Artists are bringing words back from their digital, liquid dimension, and giving them a tangible form. Everywhere people are reclaiming the word and using it to redefine culture from the bottom up.

 

Exploring the emancipation of language through historical and contemporary positions, from the early typographic and sound works of the concrete poets to the poetic experiments of the digital era, and accompanied by a series of readings, performances and screenings, this all-encompassing exhibition reveals the porosity between art and poetry.

 

Three historical monograph exhibitions - Henri Chopin, D.A. Levy, Dom Sylvester Houédard

The retrospective devoted to neo-avant-garde artist and pioneer of Sound and Concrete poetry Henri Chopin (1922–2008) features over 80 works including his most influential dactylopoèmes, films, and a sizeable collection of archival documents. This poet, painter, filmmaker, independent publisher, and cultural organizer used early recording systems to produce a wide range of works based on the manipulation of the human voice.

 

D.A. Levy (1942–68), one of the most mysterious, unconventional characters in American underground culture presents us with a radical art form. Levy realized his erased-pulverized poetry with the book-as-object in mind. His work is often considered as a forerunner to the subculture of the "zine."

 

Another historical exhibition focuses on Dom Sylvester Houédard (1924–92), a Benedictine priest and extraordinary concrete poet, who envisioned a new approach to spirituality, philosophy, and art to affirm his conviction that “the written word freezes the spoken word and makes it concrete and material."

 

Word Squares, a solo show by Karl Holmqvist

Karl Holmqvist’s art is an exhibition of words—encompassing poetry and the writing on the wall along with a radical re-assertion of the possibility of a spoken-word sculpture. Holmqvist’s words acquire a new appreciation, as these become mantras and icons. At the Centre, the artist brings together recent works, new productions, and a platform specifically conceived to host performances and readings.

 

A celebration of Wor(l)ds

Steve Roggenbuck presents a large selection of Internet-based poetry encompassing XXIst century equivalents to traditional poetic forms. With I Lick Chopin, Invernomuto introduce a musical overview of authors whose lyrics give a prime role to the spoken word and the recorded word. A large part of this exhibition is dedicated to the spoken word through a large program of performances and readings.

 

Please visit our website for further details.

 

Featuring Henri Chopin, Karl Holmqvist, D.A. Levy, Dom Sylvester Houédard, along with Tomomi Adachi, Marc Adrian, Pierre Alferi, Mary Boo Anderson, Fia Backström, Walter Davis, Danielle Dean, Alli Simone DeFeo, Sebastian Dicenaire, Pancho Espinosa, Giovanni Fontana, Gilles Furtwängler, Jérôme Game, James Ganas, Michel Giroud, Mira Gonzalez, @Horse_Ebooks, Sophia Le Fraga, Anne Le Troter, Elizabeth Lebon, Patricia Lockwood, Chris Mann, Andrea Marioni, Memeoji, Becket Mingwen, Joachim Montessuis, @RealAvocadoFact, Cia Rinne, Sébastien Roux, Marie-Luce Ruffieux, Julie Sas, Lucy K Shaw, Orion Scohy, August Smith, Cally Spooner, Rain Terranova (Gangster Popeye), Jamey Strathman, Nora Turato, Laura Vazquez

 

Conceived by Andrea Bellini, in collaboration with Mathieu Copeland, Ambroise Barras, Vincent Barras, Gigiotto Del Vecchio, Carla Demierre, Invernomuto, Ceel Mogami de Haas (one gee in fog) and Steve Roggenbuck.