Illuminated poetry

Last October we participated in the poetry festival 2010 Poetas por km2 atLa Casa de América in Madrid.

With the installation 1.000 poems by mail, we wanted to illuminate the poetry and at the same time and ensure that the visitors actively enjoyed the installation.

To do this, we filled the garden with 1,000 white envelopes containing poems written especially for the occasion by the poets who participated in the festival.

The lit envelopes remained hanging in the garden for 3 days, serving as intimate illumination for the poetic festival. The last night, with light still in the interior, they were offered to the public as keepsakes, or better yet, for them to address to a loved one, to whom we would send the envelope.

With the intervention we wanted to look a little towards the past, in a nostalgic way and remember times in which important words travelled in envelopes.

We also wanted each person that read the poetic message, to think of an important person to whom they would like it to arrive.

We collected about 100 envelopes with addresses which we hurried to send to their recipients. Knowing that the letters arrived still illuminated filled us with joy.

Thanks to the poets, Ajo, Peru Saizprez, Mayra Oyuela, Javier de la Rosa, Javier Nadie, La Más Bella, Raúl Zurita, Julián Herbert, Reynaldo Jiménez, Emila Persola, Héctor Avellán, Linda Wong, Eduardo Scala, Pep Gómez, Maria Eloy-García, Josep Pedrals, Gabriel Vallecillo, for creating a work of art for us to illuminate.

It was a pleasure to work with Pepe and Fabio who made everything so easy for us, and with the team that were voluntarily and diligently installing the 1,000 envelopes with us.

We cannot forget Enrique Morente, who gifted us with his last concert and took an illuminated envelope with him.

The photos are by Gustavo Sanabria.

Time of installation: 14 hours.
Damages: none.
Exhibition time: 3 nights.

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