5th International Meeting of Experimental, Sound and Visual Poetry

Centro Cultural Recoleta  -  26 . September . 2002  -  Buenos Aires

The Poetry sen in Spain

By José-Carlos Beltrán (España)

"The use of signs has been on the increase in human communication today. This opens up non-discursive poetry to some very broad possibilities: the use of audio-visual means of communication"

Alfonso López Gradolfi (1)

Thirty years later these words are perfectly valid and are a reality, thanks to the efforts and dedication of poets like Fernando Millán, Antonio Gómez, Antonio L. Bauza, Alfonso López Gradoli, José María Montells, Francisco Pino, J.M. Calleja, Pablo del Barco, Bartolomé Ferrando, etc., some of whom may be found in this international exhibition, and definitely thanks also to those pioneers who have left us their work like Joan Brossa, Guillem Villalod, Felipe Boso, or Julio Campal. We are indebted to all of these people for having brought into the present a recognizable genre with its own characteristics.

Spanish visual poetry is going through one of its best periods, with a clear vision toward meeting the reader-receiver. This vision desires to overcome the weight of enslaving materialism by searching out new means of communication, which the visual poet can offer through his or her work. At the same time, the poet encounters the participatory response of the reader, as may be seen by the incursion of visual poetry into mass communication media such as the literary supplements (Cuadernos del Sur from the Diario de Córdoba), cultural journals (Cuadernos del Matemático of Getafe, Madrid), collective books (Aldea Poética Poesía en Acción (2), or editions of books by commercial publishers (4), all of which makes clear just how much interest there is in visual poetry  in the Spain of the 21st century.

This individual as well as collective activity since 1997 can be seen in the monographic issue of the magazine Revista Insula (5) and in the multiple exhibitions of national and regional focus that have occurred (6). Also in specialized magazines like Texturas, edited and directed by Angela Serna in Vitoria, or Phayum in Benicarló (Castellón), dedicated exclusively to visual poetry. There are many collective portfolios of Mail Art (7), and books and chapbooks of visual poetry are being published, as by the specialized publisher Taller de les Paraules coordinated by Francisco Pérez Belda in Navarres (Valencia) which has published works by Fernando Millán, Angela Serna, and Nieves Salvador, among others. There are also Internet sites such as www.sttargate.com and www.fernandomillan.com, which make a wider distribution possible. We must make special mention of books of essays (8) which help create a wider awareness of the genre and its history. We must also mention the essays of Laura López Fernandez: writing from the United States, she has discussed the work of poets like Fernando Millán, J.C. Beltrán, Julio Oxoa, Angela Serna, Juan López de Ael, and others, as well as having created  the Julio Campal university archive on visual and experimental Spanish poetry:

http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/library/Internet_Links/julio_campal_experimental_poetry.htm

A very important area has been the proliferation of anthologies (9) which has updated the panoramic view of current Spanish visual poetry, has presented new poets (Nieves Salvador, Xavier Fores, Antonio Orihuela, etc.), and has provided a greater knowledge of the classic work of Fernando Millán, Antonio Gómez, López Gradoli, and others. Standing out here is the "Antología consultada" (10) with the responses of 45 specialist critics and poets who mention 130 poets, which clearly demonstrates the excellent health enjoyed by visual poetry in Spain.

But it is Mail Art, the practice of which has bloomed in a major way, which has become a major medium for visual poetry. It is practiced by such poets as Juan López de Ael, J.M. Calleja, Yolanda Pérez Herreras, and others, as well as by mail art specialists such as César Reglero, who directs the museum of Spanish Mail Art in Tarragona, or Juan Orozco Ocaña, Pedro González, J. Ricart, Tartarugo, and others. With their efforts these people have popularized this form of artistic communication.

In this exhibition of Spanish visual poetry from the 5th international conference, there is on display a wide and representative selection of works and ways of understanding the facts of visual poetry, which will permit the reader-viewer to have a faithful image of what is happening today in Spain. We must thank the initiative of Vortice Argentina and the Argentine artists Fernando García Delgado, Ivana Martínez Vollaro, and Juan Carlos Romero for this opportunity to show the work of these Spanish poets to the Argentine people. We send you from Spain our warmest greetings, in peace, love, and poetry for the distribution of this art which unites us and universalizes us beyond all frontiers.

[Translated by John M. Bennett]

NOTES