Coppejans Gallery, Antwerp
10. – 31. Oktober 2024

The exhibition focuses on works which suggest an extension of traditional understandings of poetry and literature – and that thus shed a light on the relation between the written and the visual arts. Expanding the idea of writing and reading, they are an invitation to think about how the visual arts and literature not only complement each other but can actually intertwine in fascinating ways.

Known for his concrete and visual poetry, Paul de Vree, born at the beginning of the 20th century in Antwerp, is a legendary figure in the history of experimental poetry whose influence continues until today. Alongside his contemporary Paul van Ostaijen, another Antwerpian, he is one of the internationally renowned “flemisch voices” in this field. But unlike van Ostaijen, who deceased already in 1928, he could continue to develop his work and took part in the awakening of the arts that came along with the 1960s and 70s – two decades of recent art history coined by many artists putting established notions of what constitutes the different artistic disciplines to the test and radically questioning their conventions. The exhibition features an occasion to experience rarely seen works from the poet’s family including the short film Mijn Evanaaste (1963) with sound poems read by de Vree.

As a matter of fact, Antwerp could be considered the “secret capital” of poetic experimentation in Belgium: apart from the two poet-artists mentioned, gallerist and publicist Guy Schraenen also lived here at that time and became an influential publisher of artists’ books – many of which actually are poets’ books. His multimedia literary magazine AXE (1975–76), of which copies will be available in the exhibition, may be the most spectacular of his achievements: conceived as portfolios with original contributions like posters, postcards, cut-outs, fold-outs and vinyl records AXE really served as a printed exhibition space between its covers – with the opportunity to unfold and expand it by presenting the works included as a spatial arrangement.

Alain Arias-Misson, born in Brussels in 1936, was a close friend of Paul de Vree. They collaborated closely for many exhibitions and, for a while, edited the journal De Tafelrond together that de Vree had initiated in 1953. Concretism is a brand-new and extensive cycle of 42 photo-typographic visual poems printed directly on micro-concrete panels presented here for the first time. On the basis of the letters of the work’s title, Arias-Misson arranges little figures to move the individual letters over the surface to form verses in an anagrammatic fashion: his poetic alter egos are at work with great enthusiasm and significant physical effort. Sometimes they appear as craftsmen who forcefully drag or push the signs to the right places, sometimes as clowns kicking the letters across the panels like maniacs, and sometimes as thinkers with exaggerated pathos in their postures – an ironic element, of course. What looks so playful and even exuberant at first sight, however, should not hide that this work is rich in allusions: with regard to literary references as well as to ancient numerological symbolism.

In 1968, artist Gaston de Mey, who lived in Eeklo, took an unexpected artistic step against the backdrop of his early work. He abandoned representational and figurative painting and dedicated his life to drawing and painting letters. Nothing can be read on these canvasses with their intricate geometric arrangements and patterns of seemingly random alphabetical characters. Still, they take the viewers to task for a continuous search for meaning in carefully composed labyrinths of letters. The history of visual po‚etry which reaches far back in the past of many cultures around the world was an important source of inspiration for him.

The selection is complemented with works by artist Wim Nival and writer Maarten Inghels. For his poetic objects Nival uses discarded everyday objects such as keyboards from old typewriters, wood printing letters, notebooks and old book covers that he finds on his forays to flea markets and applies interventions to them. Often, he uses rub-on Letraset letters covering them with a layer of abstract-looking patterns of alphabetic signs – turning the ordinary into something unfamiliar that reveals a poetic quality. Maarten Inghels‘ visual works are often concrete poems, sometimes made from his own publications that he reclaims from the second-hand market or overstock liquidations. By transforming his discarded books into objects, he breathes new life into what his former readers have picked out and gives them a second chance – as works of art. His other visual work is often based on “things that belong to all of us,” such as Scheldewater, children’s droids or paper airplanes.