'Concrete' Poet Is A Solid Hit
15 September 2011
Celebrated poet Eugen Gomringer and an example of concrete poetry honouring his visit to the University.
The poet outside the University's Markeaton Street site in Derby.
Celebrated poet Eugen Gomringer - seen as the father of 'concrete poetry'- visited the University to talk about his work.
Mr Gomringer, 86, who is Swiss, opened an exhibition entitled Concept as Concrete Form: Visual Poetry, Texts and Typography on the evening of September 13 and gave a talk on The Inter-relation Between Concrete Art and Poetry on September 14, both at the University's Markeaton Street site in Derby.
'Concrete poetry' is a literary form where the arrangement of a poem's words on the printed page is considered to be as important as the poem itself. For example, Mr Gomringer's own poem Wind shows the letters W-I-N-D scattered as if by a wind.
His visit to Derby was part of a rare UK tour to talk about his half-century long career as a poet. The tour was arranged by Rodger Brown, a Programme Leader in the University's School of Art and Design, and the Research Group for Artists Publications (RGAP), formerly based at the University but now at the Yorkshire Artspace in Sheffield. ,
The poet also visited London, Leicester York and Edinburgh as part of the tour this month (September.
