[the visual poet]



Glauco Mattoso's poetry may be chronologically and formally divided into
two distinct phases: the first may be called the VISUAL PHASE,
characterized by the poet's experimental parodies of various
contemporary tendencies, from Brazilian modernism to "underground"
motifs, influenced primarily by Concretism, which esteemed the
graphic/visual character of the poem. The author's second phase may be
termed the BLIND(NESS) PHASE, as his complete visual impairment leads
him to abandon processes such as dactylographic concretism, and he
begins to compose classical sonnets, where rigor in metric, rhyme, and
rhythm functions as a mnemonic device allowing the poet to perform a
re-working of old Glauquian themes (ugliness, dirtiness, wickedness,
vices, trauma, stigma), reappropriating concretist techniques
(paronomasia, alliteration, euphony and cacophony of verbal
configurations), while incorporating slang and colloquialism, elements
which have always been hallmarks of the hybrid style of the author. The
VISUAL PHASE runs from the 1970s to the end of the 1980s, while the
BLIND(NESS) PHASE begins in 1999, with the publication of his first
books of sonnets. [1]

Between January 18 and March 17, 2002, the city of Austin (Texas) had
the rare opportunity to enjoy the first show of BRAZILIAN VISUAL POETRY
ever exhibited outside of Brazil. The show took place at the MEXIC-ARTE
MUSEUM, and displayed works utilizing several media such as: Computer
Imaging, Digital effects, digital texts, Plotter Prints, Installations,
objects, artists books, charcoal and pen drawings, collages, Sound work,
Video installations and two programs of video.

Following the exhibition at the MEXIC-ARTE MUSEUM, in Austin, the
BRAZILIAN VISUAL POETRY show has traveled to other cities in the United
States. The show also has a virtual version, which can be visited online
at www.imediata.com

The exhibition displays works by over 50 outstanding Brazilian poets,
including artists familiar to the American public, such as
Caetano Veloso, recognized for his career as a composer and a singer, and Hélio
Oiticica, considered one of the most important Brazilian artists of the
20th century. Other names included are Alvaro de Sá, Arnaldo Antunes,
Augusto de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Haroldo de Campos, Millôr
Fernandes, Moacy Cirne and Wlademir Dias-Pino.

For that exhibition, Glauco Mattoso has contributed with some front
pages from his JORNAL DOBRABIL, described by Steven Butterman as
"para-concrete" (or what Mattoso himself terms "contraconcreto" or
"criticoncreto"). According to Butterman, criticoncretism is "...a
fascinating process whereby he (in my view, successfully) utilizes
concrete poetry as a tool to subvert, and ultimately, to destroy
itself..." [2]


According to the press release of the exhibition,

[Brazilian Visual Poetry was born in the mid 1950s when the poets
Augusto de Campos, Haroldo de Campos and Décio Pignatari (all in this
show) invented Concrete Poetry.

CONCRETE POETRY is a certain poetry practice formulated in the 50's from
Brazil and from Switzerland, with the following basic characteristics:
(a) abolition of verse; (b) "verbivocovisual" texts, which means the
organization of a poem according to graphic criteria in order to bring
out the material aspect of the word, its plasticity and sound – poetry
to be seen and to be heard (for eye and ear); (c) partial or total
elimination of ties with speech, for a direct connection between words
and phrases; (d) integration between verbal and non-verbal, word and
image. Such practices concentrate and expand previous proposals that
were part of the avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century
(futurism, dada, simultaneous, etc) reclaimed in the 50's with a
constructivist rigor. The great precursor was Mallarmé's spatial poem
"Un Coup de Dés" (1897).] [3]


Click below for excerpts from Butterman's thesis about the
"criticoncrete" poetry of Glauco Mattoso in the JORNAL DOBRABIL and
other works, focusing on fundamental tenets of Mattoso's "highly
subversive meta-poetic texts":

[A CONCRETE VISUAL PSEUDONYM]

[COLLAGE AND BRICOLAGE]

[SCATOLOGY AND "COPROPHAGY"]

[PORNOGRAPHY AND HOMOEROTICISM]

["HAICAIS" AND "LIMEIRIQUES"]




ORIGINAL FRONT COVER (1981) and RE-EDITION BY ILUMINURAS (2001)









[NOTES]

[1] Click [SELECTED SONNETS] and see "Soneto ensaístico."

[2] See [SOURCES]. For Butterman's introduction and contents, see
[A TRANSGRESSOR AS CASE STUDY].

[3] Press release edited by Mario Mieli. See also [LINKS].

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