[ad_1]
The poetic practice of Melo e Castro, father of the singer Eugénia Melo e Castro, has always been accompanied by a “systematic theorization about language and communication technologies”, in his extensive work, intersection of multiple practices and experimental forms.
The graphemic explosion, the three-dimensional poem-object, the intermediate recombination of writing, the performance that inscribes the bodily presence and the theorization of the poem as a means of criticizing discourse in the media universe, are examples of some of these experimental practices , pioneers in Portuguese Art.
A prominent figure in the artistic environment of the 1960s and 1970s, EM de Melo e Castro devoted himself, in the following decades, to researching and reflecting in his work the relationships between art and technological development, having authored a number of works pioneers who used video and computers for literary production.
Between 1985 and 1989, EM de Melo e Castro even developed a project to create ‘videopoetry’, called “Signagens”, at the Universidade Aberta.
In 1998, the poet completed his doctorate in Literature at the University of São Paulo, in Brazil, having been a professor at the Higher Institute of Art, Design and Marketing (IADE) and at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo.
His artistic activity was featured in various group exhibitions, both in Portugal and abroad, but also in solo exhibitions, shows and ‘events’.
He was part of the historical Alternative Zero (1977), exhibited at Galeria 111, Galeria Buchholz, Quadrum, Galeria Divulgation, 1975; Modern Art Center, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, among other places, in the country and abroad.
In 2006, the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art presented “O Caminho do Leve”, a retrospective (retroactive) exhibition of his great work, which ranges from concrete and experimental poetry to ‘infopoetry’, passing through ‘videopoetry’ and creating images. fractals, with a selection of representative works from almost five decades of work.
In 2018, Brasilia received, from October to December, the exhibition “Portuguese Experimental Poetry”, which brings together works dating from 1960 to the present and unpublished by EM Melo e Castro.
The poet and artist was also mentioned in the exhibition dedicated to the first generation of Portuguese experimental poetry authors, which also included Ana Hatherly and Herberto Helder, brought together by the Galeria Zé dos Bois (ZDB), in Lisbon, in early 2017 .
Melo e Castro’s work is part of collections such as the contemporary art collections of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Serralves Foundation.
Resident for more than 20 years in Brazil, EM de Melo e Castro, considered one of the Portuguese artists most loved by the audience of the host country, was appointed, on June 10, 2017, Commander of the Order of the Infante D. Henrique .
Minister of Culture remembers the poet as an example of inventiveness
“For Portuguese poetry and plastic arts, EM de Melo e Castro will always be an example of inventiveness and a talent that never settled for limits and dogmas,” the minister underlines, in a note of condolences and condolences to the family.
Graça Fonseca emphasizes that the poet, “essential figure” of Portuguese experimental poetry, has always been “dynamic and interventionist” and that his artistic work has always been accompanied by a “conscious and mature theoretical production”.
In the letter, the minister recalls that, with the publication of “Ideogramas”, in 1962, the poet Ernesto Melo e Castro inaugurated Portuguese concrete poetry, thus building a “base that initiated experimentalism.”
“He was a pioneer of Portuguese writing and visual arts, with a vast and multidisciplinary work in which, as he so often referred to, transgression was the crucial point of his production,” he says.
From the poet’s trip, Graça Fonseca also highlights the organization, together with his wife, Maria Alberta Menéres, of the “Anthology of the most recent Portuguese poetry”, considering it a “work unmatched by the rigor of the selection, the detail and the exhaustiveness of the information and for the impact it had on contemporary Portuguese poetry ”.
“In his work we can always see a language in constant revolution, in constant tension, a language without defined borders and which is constantly reinventing itself,” he recalls.
(Article last updated at 16:18)
