The erotic imaginary and the relation between body, gender and text nourished the daring experiences of neo-avant-garde visual poetics in the 1960s and 1970s by establishing themselves at the core of “verbi-voco-visual explorations” (McLuhan, 1967). Without losing sight of the vast cultural heritage and references of historical avant-gardes as well as of Beat Poetry, Fluxus and Situationist visual-erotic production, the symposium aims at reconstructing and assessing the impact of erotic desire on Concrete and Visual Poetry through a rich corpus of literary works, magazines, and ephemera starting with the Bibliothèque Kandinsky – Centre Pompidou collections and expanding the reflection to other relevant examples of post-war experimental poetry. In addition to keynote lectures and academic presentations, the conference will host poetry readings and performances in order to prompt an interdisciplinary and international debate on the issues, and to examine a unique body of works that illuminate the far-reaching conceptual and poetic implications of neo-avant-garde verbo-visual eroticism.

Presentation

The erotic imaginary and the relation between body, gender and text nourished the daring experiences of neo-avant-garde visual poetics in the 1960s and 1970s by establishing themselves at the core of “verbi-voco-visual explorations” (McLuhan, 1967). Without losing sight of the vast cultural heritage and references of historical avant-gardes as well as of Beat Poetry, Fluxus and Situationist visual-erotic production, the symposium aims at reconstructing and assessing the impact of erotic desire on Concrete and Visual Poetry through a rich corpus of literary works, magazines, and ephemera starting with the Bibliothèque Kandinsky – Centre Pompidou collections and expanding the reflection to other relevant examples of post-war experimental poetry (e.g., S. M. Martini, Il libro dei segni d´amore, 1979; A. Spatola, La vergine di Norimberga, 1978; G. Rühm, Erotic scale studies, 1966; J. Blaine and J. F. Bory, “L´érotisme dans la poésie matérielle,” Approches no. 2, 1966; K. La Rocca, Non commettere sorpassi impuri, 1964-65; D. Pignatari, Organismo, 1960). In addition to keynote lectures and academic presentations, the conference will host poetry readings and performances in order to prompt an interdisciplinary and international debate on the issues, and to examine a unique body of works that illuminate the far-reaching conceptual and poetic implications of neo-avant-garde verbo-visual eroticism.

Organization

An International Symposium organized by Maria Elena Minuto (Université de Liège; KU Leuven) and Mica Gherghescu (Bibliothèque Kandinsky – Centre Pompidou)

Place and attendance

• Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou
• September 17, 2021, 10:00 am – 6:30 pm (Centre Pompidou, Petite Salle, Forum - 1)
• September 18, 2021, 10:00 am – 6:30 pm (Bibliothèque Kandinsky)

Conference language: French and English

Open to the public. The Symposium is dedicated to the Professor Emeritus Klaus Peter Dencker and it will be also accessible online. Connection link will be made available prior to the conference dates on the website https://carnetbk.hypotheses.org/3308

Programme

September 17, 2021, 10:00 am – 6:30 pm

(Centre Pompidou, Petite Salle, Forum - 1)

10:00 Welcome Bernard Blistène | Director, Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou

10:15 Introduction

• Maria Elena Minuto | ULiège; KU Leuven « Les choses du désir sollicitent l’œil » : Verbovisual Eroticism in Neo-Avant-Garde Experimental Poetry Magazines
• Mica Gherghescu | Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou Poetry against Form

Corporal and intermedial poetry

Chair: Johan Pas | Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp

• 10:45 Film Screening of starfighter (1970) by Klaus Peter Dencker and Keynote speech by Margit Rosen | ZKM, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; Danube University, Krems On Klaus Peter Dencker
• 11:15 Karen Di Franco | Chelsea College of Arts (UAL); University of Reading & Tate Britain, London Concrete Erotics: Carolee Schneemann’s Parts of a Body House Book
• 11:45 Caroline Lillian Schopp | Universität Wien Extimate Eroticism: On Excretion in Dieter Roth’s Material Poetics
• 12:15 Discussion

12:45 Break

Transgressive poetics of body, sound, and performance

Chair: Annalisa Rimmaudo | Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou

• 14:00 Keynote speech by Giuliana Pieri | Royal Holloway University of London Eros, Body, and Female Agency in the Work of Ketty La Rocca
• 14:30 Eva Fabbris | Fondazione Prada, Milano and Pietro Rigolo | Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles “Attraverso la parola, il corpo gode” (Through the Word, the Body Achieves Pleasure): The Eroticism of Sound and Visual Poetry according to Peppe Morra
• 15:00 Francesca Gallo | Università degli Studi “La Sapienza” di Roma Séduction et ironie dans l’œuvre de Lucia Marcucci

15:30 Break

• 16:00 Chiara Agradi | Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne; École du Louvre, Paris Photographie Polaroid et “nouvelle écriture à mesure de femme” dans la pratique artistique de Anna Oberto
• 16:30 Francesca Valentini | Universität zu Köln (a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities) Desire, Visuality, and Sonority in the work of Giulia Niccolai and Patrizia Vicinelli
• 17:00 Discussion
• 17h:0 Artist lectures by Jean-François Bory and Alain Arias-Misson (A Brief Interpolation of the Erotic Signifier). Respondent: Jan De Vree, M HKA Museum, Antwerp
• 18:30 Conclusions

September 18, 2021, 10:00 am – 6:30 pm

(Bibliothèque Kandinsky)

The verbovisual appeal of poetry

Chair: Cristina De Simone | Université de Caen

• 10:00Keynote speech by Mary Ann Caws | The Graduate Center, New York Reading into the Concrete
• 10:30 Keynote speech by Livio Belloï | ULiège/FNRS/UR Traverses/CIPA and Michel Delville | ULiège/UR Traverses/CIPA Les dessous de Mallock. Stratégies de l'effeuillage textuel dans l'œuvre de Tom Phillips
• 11:00 Anne Foucault | Université Paris Nanterre Nouvelles voies érotiques: corps, voix et picto-poésie dans le dernier groupe surréaliste (1965-1969)
• 11:30 Christoph Benjamin Schulz | University of Applied Sciences, Düsseldorf Homodelight & Phallicandy. Love and Same-Sex-Desire in Ferdinand Kriwet’s Visual Poetry
• 12:00 Discussion

12:30 Break

• 13:30 Sandra Guerreiro Dias | Universidade de Coimbra Poetic Performance and Erotic Corporeality in Salette Tavares
• 14:00 Amir Brito Cadôr | Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Written Body: Brazilian Concrete Poetry in the 60s and 80s
• 14:30 Adrien D. Casimiro | Université d'Artois L’éros concrétiste brésilien ou le dépassement d'une aporie
• 15:00 Discussion

15:30 Break

• 16:00 Artist lectures by Gianfranco Baruchello (Le désir, les rêves, les images: les langages du corps pensant), Lamberto Pignotti (La super arma fra parole e immagini) and Julien Blaine (L’écriture originaire). Respondent: Giorgio Zanchetti | Università degli Studi di Milano
• 17:30 Collective reading activated and animated by Benjamin Thorel (After 8 Books, Paris) together with the participants
• 18:30 Discussion and Conclusions

Scientific Partnerships

Université de Liège, Belgium – Department of Modern Languages and Department of Historical Sciences; KU Leuven, Belgium – Departement of French, Italian and Spanish Literature.

In collaboration with: the Centre Interdisciplinaire de Poétique Appliquée (CIPA, ULiège); the Service d'histoire de l'art de l'époque contemporaine (SHAÉC, ULiège); the UR Traverses (ULiège).

Scientific Committee

• Julie Bawin (Université de Liège)
• Bernard Blistène (Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou)
• Vincent Broqua (Université Paris 8)
• Michel Delville (Université de Liège)
• Mica Gherghescu (Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou)
• Maria Elena Minuto (Université de Liège; KU Leuven)
• Anne Reverseau (Université Catholique de Louvain)
• Bart Van den Bossche (KU Leuven)
• Giorgio Zanchetti (Università degli Studi di Milano)