| This study traces the development of the main elements in concrete poetry, from its roots in the work of Stéphane Mallarmé through the works of the Noigandres group in Brazil and Öyvind Fahlström in Sweden, and will include an analysis of how Fahlström carried these ideas into the realm of the visual arts.; This study focuses on central questions about the concretist movement that have been assimilated by the mainstream, and disconnected from their original source. The concrete poetry movement of the 1950s constituted a major operation in the realm of language, which mainly targeted the stiffened rhetoric inherited from the nineteenth century. The repercussions of such an operation were larger than anyone could foresee. Initially the changes were merely formal, and these formal changes in turn triggered changes in areas closely related to art, setting off a chain reaction. A thorough reading of these formal changes was necessary, since they hint at patterns, or motifs in language—written language, art language—of great importance to the artistic process.; The central motif in these formal changes is at the core of what Fahlström advocated as the “concrete” par excellence, which could be used as a “module” to build or construct things. The concept of the “module,” borrowed from modernistic architecture, has been recently revived and updated by the concept of the “sample,” which has been a core principle in contemporary music. Furthermore, one can also equate the concept of the “module” to the concept of the “quote” in writing, thus keeping the “concrete” contribution within the boundaries of writing-text-literature.; This study also addresses the issue of fluidity between different languages—in this case, written and visual. It examines how these two languages interact and intertwine, preparing the ground for a thorough examination of a wide variety of text-based artworks. |
