The poems were published in panels, written with ceramic mosaics and were a distraction to those waiting for the bus. In the last two months, the government started to clean-up public spaces from unauthorized outdoors and signs. In this process, the employees responsible for the cleaning made no clear distinctions between the ceramic panels and signs that should be removed.
As a form of protest, a group of artists organized a protest called PROJETO POESIA NA SARJETA (Project: Poetry in the Gutter). The protest started just after the destruction of the panels and since then there were no results. Finally the artists decided to organize a movement by publishing a poem in a new ceramic panel and placing it on the ground close to one of the bus stations attracting public attention including from the media.
History of the Poetic Panels
(by ROGELIO CASADO - http://rogeliocasado.blogspot.com/2008/07/poesia-na-sarjeta-reao-dos-poetas.html, Translation by Mare de Campos and Leo)
The idea of the poetic panels emerged four years ago, when the journalist and artist Henry Gougon, 61, head of a group named “Stone Crazy” realized that abandoned and damaged signs panels located at bus stops in Brasilia could serve as structures to urban interventions of the group.
He had already installed mosaic panels at walls of commercial buildings as a tribute to personalities of Brasília and Brazil, such as the student leader Honestino Guimarães, the educator Paulo Freire, and others. To honour the poets of the city, he used old signs as support and thus the poetic panels idea emerged. He then published several poems, including those of Cassiano Nunes, Angélica Torres Lima, Nicolas Behr, Eudoro Augusto and Fernando Mendes Vianna.
Clean Brasilia?
The panels were incorporated to the city landscape, and were well received by residents. But last April 2nd, through the project "Clean Brasilia," the local Government, claiming that the panels were getting on the way of the bus stations, ordered the removal of all panels. Only two panels were left untouched, thanks to the intervention of a local resident.
The Poets React
The following day, when the news spread out, an intense exchange of e-mails between poets of Brasilia started. As a result, a group of artists organized a protest against to what was considered an offence to the cultural memory of the city.
The reaction gathered many people, including a famous journalist from São Paulo, who is also a poet, Mr. Carlos Marchi, who lived 22 years in Brasilia ("acts against poetry should be treated furiously, with the anger of those who create verses or use poems as shelters.... It is not possible to negotiate to be free to make art – it does not have limits ").
The writer Vera Brant, a Brasília pioneer, friend of JK and Niemeyer, is outraged to know about the removal of the panels: ("Who was the fool who did this? What barbarity!"). Residents condemned the destruction of the panels by publishing letters in newspapers ("Let those who were responsible for this act of vandalism be identified and punished. These works were cultural heritage of our town" - Andrew and Cybele Andrade, Correio Braziliense, April 6, 2008).
Poetry is like seeds
The poets who wrote the poems used on the panels spoke out in a simple manner using more poetry. The journalist and poet TT Catalan, for example, fired an e-mail illustrated by a photo of a pioneer worker arriving for the construction of Brasilia: "The plan will only be respected / if the pilot is respected, / if a city needs goals, / much more urgent / needs poets. "
Another poet, also a journalist Paulo Jose Cunha, wrote:
Verse Always Turns into Pollen
Even if the pieces of verses
get off the gutters
there will always be someone to get it back
and plant it again
(poetry is like seeds)
Destruction do not abolishing
the greater truth
Verse never becomes dust
Verse is always pollen
Poetry In The Gutter Project
Since the destruction episode happened, the artist Henry Gougon thought a form of reaction to the act of vandalism. By walking the sidewalks of W-3 Avenue, where he lives, he had the idea to build mosaics to be displayed on the floors of bus stops. The project "Poetry in the gutter" was then born. The first poem used was PJ Cunha’s "Verses Always Turn into Pollen", to inaugurate this new form of urban intervention.
In the meanwhile, a manifesto was written by several city artists to protest against the removal the panels. The manifesto advocated:
- for their reconstruction;
- reaffirmed the cultural character of artistic urban interventions;
- and required the institutionalization of poetic demonstrations throughout the city.
After two months of fruitless efforts, the poets decided to send the manifesto by e-mail to the local authorities.
See also
See more news about the protest at links below:
> http://rogeliocasado.blogspot.com/2008/07/poesia-na-sarjeta-reao-dos-poetas.html
> http://palavrastodaspalavras.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/2789/
Inspiring Cities Museum of CityPoems
Inspiring Cities has collected many citypoems over the years, as well as organized salons with citypoets and cities doing special projects. We have two criteria for what a citypoem is: the intention must be poetic, and it must be in the public realm of cities. Shapes, form and locations can and do differ.
The Museum of CityPoems has citypoems from cities all over the world. From Alhambra to Zonnebeke, from Taipei to Lima.
Got one yourself? Mail us your pictures (free of rights) and description, and we will publish.
Find many more examples of Guerrilla Tactics all over the world on Inspiring Cities.