“I am absolutely convinced that the 21st century will be remembered as the time of the boom of conceptualism in Latvian literature,” the poet Kārlis Vērdiņš pointed out in the Latvian Radio program “Kultūras Rondo”.
Kārlis Vērdiņš’s latest collection “Ready Poetry” has just been published, in which examples of conceptual poetry are collected, together confirming its diverse content and formal possibilities.
The poet said that the title of the book could have several explanations: “One of them is the Latvian English term” ready made “. We know it mostly in visual art as a technique, when we take a finished object, bring it into the exhibition hall, and it becomes art. Starting with the famous Marcel Duchamp urinal, which started this tradition. And it is still used quite often in visual art to this day.
It seemed to me that we should also use this technique more in the literature to see what comes of it. ”
The focus on “ready made” poetry can also be explained by the fact that the world is currently full of different texts. Vērdiņš pointed out that nowadays we live in a “text siege”, writing each other text messages, e-mails and comments. “We have very, very much text,” said the poet.
Collection “Finished Poetry”
Photo: Publicity image
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In the new collection, Vērdiņš has included works created in various ways. He explained: “There are texts that have been” copy-pasted “, there are texts that have been manipulated. There are texts that have been put together with other texts, there are texts that I have recounted, I have documented some daily developments or videos “I tried very hard to have different formal approaches. If we use the same approaches, it will quickly get boring. My desire was to try what other forms it is possible to work with the finished texts.”
Graphically, the works are also different – there are those that resemble ordinary poems, but with unusual content, but there are also those that resemble other texts. The poet, in collaboration with the artist Krišs Salmanis, has also created various graphic signs, illustrations and visual accents for the collection in order to make the texts more interesting.
At the beginning of the book, the reader will encounter several pages of texts in prose, which could be called reservations. Vērdiņš explained that one of the testimonies of this era is the bureaucratization and institutionalization of many spheres of life: that the key, however, is to write a good project and fill in all the fields bureaucratically correctly, and only then can we hope at all that this meager funding here will perhaps be given to one of us.
Therefore, I think it is also right to start with such a block of reservations, in which we look at this text as if from all sides and try to define it in various ways and outline all the countless contexts in which the text exists in the book of poetry. ”
Collection “Finished Poetry”
Photo: Publicity image
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Vērdiņš noted that it is also possible to create poetry from project descriptions. The opening texts of the book also include motifs from descriptions of what art should be and what art is supported. The poet said: “In the concluding part, where there are these instructions on how to organize a conceptualist poetry event, there are similar texts. This use of language permeates this book. ”
Conceptualist poetry events take place less often than Vērdiņš would like, noting that this year it is impossible to organize anything much. “Unfortunately, we could not celebrate the 60th anniversary of Einārs Pelšs as grandiose as he deserved, although now we hope that there will be one poetry event in Cēsis on October 30, in which Jānis Rokpelnis, Raimonds Ķirķis and I will participate. And it will be a journey from modernism to conceptualism and back. And I also hope that one day before that, on October 29, I would sit all day in the Neputna bookstore and give autographs with a face mask, gloves, disinfectants, shields and everything else loaded, ”said the poet.
Collection “Finished Poetry”
Photo: Publicity image
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The book also contains seemingly contradictory ‘reservations’, such as one stating that the book is intended for a wide range of readers and another stating that some of the text in the book may not be suitable for some readers. The poet explained: “I think if we start collecting these reservations, then we see that these reservations are very contradictory. I wrote about their unsuitability from an exhibition somewhere in America, probably in New York, in English. There was such a reservation before entering one of the halls that the works of art may not be suitable for some. And at the same time, all, I think, art institutions are already facing the fact that the number of visitors is very important and everyone is trying to attract more and more audiences.
So we have to live between these two contradictions all the time, on the one hand, to pull everyone in, to show our art, on the other hand, if we preserve any creative freedom of the artist at all, then we have to take into account that not all works of art will be for everyone. appropriate. “
Collection “Finished Poetry”
Photo: Publicity image
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The poetry landscape in Latvia is currently quite diverse, Vērdiņš believes. He pointed out: “Einārs Pelšs and in general this conceptual approach has simply refreshed Latvian contemporary poetry. Because before there seemed to be a feeling that we know what good poetry is, we know how to write to be published with the support of a cultural capital fund, we know how to write to be nominated to give a prize, and then we all so diligently we write their good poetry. And, of course, on the one hand, you need to write good poetry, on the other hand, it is already starting to limit that you can no longer afford to experiment, you can no longer afford to be stupid or strange, or incomprehensible or challenging. We will all be the good ones and hope for prize and money.
And yes, so I think a little bit of such hooliganism is already coming to our version of conceptualism, and it’s very refreshing. “
Collection “Finished Poetry”
Photo: Publicity image
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Kārlis Vērdiņš’s collection of poems “Ready Poetry” has been published by the publishing house “Neputns”.
On October 29, Kārlis Vērdiņš will supply the Neputns store in Rīga, Tērbatas Street, give autographs and, if anyone wants, read poetry.
On October 30, in Cēsis, in the art space “Mala”, the event “Zvārgulis Festival. From Modernism to Conceptualism and Back” is planned, in which poets Jānis Rokpelnis, Raimonds Ķirķis and Kārlis Vērdiņš will take part.
