Visual Poetry and Surroundings

Visual poetry. A phenomenon, albeit a global one, considered niche and followed by a small group of people. More than collectors, in this case, one can speak of jealous lovers, greedy for everything about it.

The visual poets' movement took its first steps in 1963, at the Florence conference “Art and Communication”. Visual poetry aims to be a new form of language combining art and culture, transcending the purely artistic aspect to become a real action on life. Words and images typical of mass communication are decontextualised in order to be completely distorted and transformed in their meaning. Observing the work of the visual poets, the reference to the ‘words in freedom’ of futurism or the Duchampian ready-mades may seem all too evident. Yet the innovative element is the destruction and consequent reinterpretation of the traditional concept of writing, poetry and media language, both verbal and visual.