A contemporary rendition of Breton’s poem object, Livre-écran is a retro-futuristic composition placing traditional literature and the digital medium in juxtaposition and dialogue. The English poem, shown here (minted as an NFT on the objkt platform) translates, samples and remixes the printed French text.
See Livre-écran for the complete composition.
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Kalen Iwamoto and Julien Silvano have worked together on text-based conceptual art since 2021. They created Wen New, their art and language atelier, to experiment at the meeting-point of art, text, web3, digital and physical art. Guided by concepts, their oeuvre includes physical sculptures, poetry performance art, paintings, installations, blockchain publishing, including an on chain play, among other forms.
A conversation between the digital and the physical and 2023 Crypto Art Award Shortlist, The Lumen Prize.
“The poem-object is a composition that aims to combine resources from poetry and the visual arts, and to contemplate their capacity for mutual exaltation.”
— André Breton
Poème Objkt is a conversation between poetry and the visual arts brought to life through the liminal play of the physical and the digital. As contemporary expressions of Breton’s poem-object, the pieces in this exhibition present works of poetry, experimental writing and literature on the blockchain that enhance, reinvent and reimagine the relationship between the text and the image, the analog and the digital, ultimately opening up a space for dialogue that blurs and challenges the lines that divide.
This co-curation with L'Avant Galerie Vossen and theVERSEverse in Paris materializes in two parts:
Part 1 opened in October 2022. L’Avant Galerie Vossen and theVERSEverse curated the works of Sasha Stiles, Ross Goodwin, Ana María Caballero, aurèce vettier, Campbell McGrath, Robness, Kalen Iwamoto, Julien Silvano, Jason Sholl, and Saul Steinberg.
This first exhibition’s curatorial framework falls along the following lines:
GENERATIVE LITERATURE
POEM = WORK OF ART
CONCRETE POETRY
CONCEPTUAL
Part 2 takes place May 2023 at Librairie Métamorphoses in Paris, with a section of the exhibition taking place at L’Avant Galerie Vossen.
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Image:
Exhibition view © Photo: Jean-Louis Losi