LETTRISTS, ISOU 6 CO.
curated by François Letaillieur
MNAC The National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest
Palace of the Parliament, wing E4
Izvor St. 2-4 - Bucharest
15 March – 3 June 2013
LETTRISM has never been showcased in Romania even though one of its founders was of Romanian origin.
Isidore Isou (Botoşani 1925 - Paris 2007) and Gabriel Pomerand (Paris 1925 - 1972) had their first manifestation in Paris on the 8th of January 1946.
The "lettrists" once stated that writing should be music, painting and cinema, that cultural and social history should be rewritten, that their life changes but their objectives diverge: living art or the art of living. They chose to be called "lettrists" because they first used the "letter" as "sound", than as "image" thus poetry became music and painting became readable, unreadable or immaterial.
Starting with 1952, the lettrists form different factions: the Externists, with Marc’O, Poucette, Jacques Spacagna that wanted to "upraise the youth"; the lettrists of the Internationale Lettriste with Serge Berna, Jean-Louis Brau, Guy Debord, Gil Wolman wanted to "overcome art" and "never work" as the "isouians" with Isou, Lemaître... wanted publishers and galleries to spread their theories and works.
From the 60s, a second generation, born after the war, will join Isou mainly affirming that Lettrism is a unique doctrine of a singular creator.
Today, the worldwide fame of Internationale Situationniste of Debord together with a systemic critique brings the Lettrism in close relationship to other postwar movements that questions the sense of life that dates further back. Lettrism is inseparable from the history of "visual poetry" and of "sound poetry" of those times. Just as Dada was born out of the WW1, Lettrism was born out of WW2, used even today as an important reference point for young artists in their neo-conceptual approaches.
From the 15th of March to the 3rd of June 2013, MNAC Bucarest presents with "bandes lettristes" a selection of works presented by François Letaillieur recently exhibited at Palais de Tokyo, a historical and thematical panorama of over one hundred works and documents, some of them previously shown at Centre Pompidou in Paris and Reina Sofia in Madrid; On display are renowned and inedited creations of Roberto Altman, Jean-Louis Brau, Françoise Canal, Jean Paul Curtay, Guy Debord, Alain De Latour, François Dufrêne, Antoine Grimaud, Isidore Isou, Aude Jessemin, Maurice Lemaître, François Letaillieur, Marc’o, Gabriel Pomerand, Poucette, François Poyet, Roberdhay, Ralph Rumney, Roland Sabatier, Alain Satié, Jacques Spacagna, Florence Villers, Rosie Vronsky, Gil Wolman.
curated by François Letaillieur
MNAC The National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest
Palace of the Parliament, wing E4
Izvor St. 2-4 - Bucharest
15 March – 3 June 2013
LETTRISM has never been showcased in Romania even though one of its founders was of Romanian origin.
Isidore Isou (Botoşani 1925 - Paris 2007) and Gabriel Pomerand (Paris 1925 - 1972) had their first manifestation in Paris on the 8th of January 1946.
The "lettrists" once stated that writing should be music, painting and cinema, that cultural and social history should be rewritten, that their life changes but their objectives diverge: living art or the art of living. They chose to be called "lettrists" because they first used the "letter" as "sound", than as "image" thus poetry became music and painting became readable, unreadable or immaterial.
Starting with 1952, the lettrists form different factions: the Externists, with Marc’O, Poucette, Jacques Spacagna that wanted to "upraise the youth"; the lettrists of the Internationale Lettriste with Serge Berna, Jean-Louis Brau, Guy Debord, Gil Wolman wanted to "overcome art" and "never work" as the "isouians" with Isou, Lemaître... wanted publishers and galleries to spread their theories and works.
From the 60s, a second generation, born after the war, will join Isou mainly affirming that Lettrism is a unique doctrine of a singular creator.
Today, the worldwide fame of Internationale Situationniste of Debord together with a systemic critique brings the Lettrism in close relationship to other postwar movements that questions the sense of life that dates further back. Lettrism is inseparable from the history of "visual poetry" and of "sound poetry" of those times. Just as Dada was born out of the WW1, Lettrism was born out of WW2, used even today as an important reference point for young artists in their neo-conceptual approaches.
From the 15th of March to the 3rd of June 2013, MNAC Bucarest presents with "bandes lettristes" a selection of works presented by François Letaillieur recently exhibited at Palais de Tokyo, a historical and thematical panorama of over one hundred works and documents, some of them previously shown at Centre Pompidou in Paris and Reina Sofia in Madrid; On display are renowned and inedited creations of Roberto Altman, Jean-Louis Brau, Françoise Canal, Jean Paul Curtay, Guy Debord, Alain De Latour, François Dufrêne, Antoine Grimaud, Isidore Isou, Aude Jessemin, Maurice Lemaître, François Letaillieur, Marc’o, Gabriel Pomerand, Poucette, François Poyet, Roberdhay, Ralph Rumney, Roland Sabatier, Alain Satié, Jacques Spacagna, Florence Villers, Rosie Vronsky, Gil Wolman.
