Poetry inside the museum

2017

Collaborative performance

Contributions by Hamza Beg, James Coon, Ron Edward, Tal Griffit, Dayna Gross, Craig Mc Guigan, Mairead Kiernan, Ian Mbelle, Alexander Norton, Marius Presterud, Nathan Terry, Laila Zaidi Touis

 

Poetry inside the museum was a collaborative performance by a group of poets inside the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin. There was a microphone for the poets. The visitors were welcome to take a seat in front of the stage and to use the provided headphones to listen to the poets on stage. We gave poetry another stage and presence. We saw poetry next to other works of art inside the museum. The museum is defined as a place where works of art, scientific specimens, or other objects of permanent value are kept and displayed. Poetry is defined as a literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.

 

“Any interpretation still hangs in the air along with what it interprets, and cannot give it any support. Interpretations by themselves do not determine meaning.” Ludwig Wittgenstein

 

We are able to break definitions and develop forms of art further. The idea of a museum or the idea of a poem is only limited by our imagination and the laws of nature. We strive to think exhibitions, performance, theater, music and literature into the future.

 

 “To write a poem is to explore the unknown capacities of the mind and the heart; it is emotive, empathic exercise and, like being struck by lightning, it will probably leave you stunned, singed, but also a bit brighter, and too your odds of being struck again then go much higher.” Dean Young

 

 

Poetry is a very powerful form of art. We need poetry in the same way we need libraries, hospitals, theaters and homeless shelters. To work with words and to use words carefully will be of great importance. We will be able to carve sculptures with words. Poets transform words into works of art the same way sculptors transform stone into sculpture. Poetry is still underrepresented inside the realms of art. Poetry is one of the few forms of art not yet commercialized and behind that fact lies beauty. The poet will be the last artist.