Text Festival, books and stuff

As already featured in the anniversary post on 19 March, the field of action of first festival was contextualised with the ‘Text’ (ISBN 0 9538915 3 4). In addition to the ‘credo’, the festival published a postcard set, with designs by Caroline Bergvall, Geof Huth, Phil Davenport, and Carolyn Thompson and me. In parallel, there were collaborations with If P then Q, Knives Forks and Spoons, and Apple Pie Publications, a poster set and various chapbooks/books engaging with the Text Festival over its four-festival run. In this sense, I think the Festival can claim to have been fundament to developing and sustaining an experimental publishing sector in the north of England. For the 2009 Festival, we published ‘Text 2’ (ISBN 978 0 9538915 9 7) which was an anthology of works by artists involved in the Text Festival. In my focus on subsequent projects and moving country over the years, I seem not to have retained a copy, so again the contents is down to my poor memory. Maybe my forgetfulness is a broader metaphor for the festival itself, or any seminal moment that was influential in its time, but which is covered over by time, until some future generation rediscovers it. As Ron Silliman warned at the time, the biggest danger to the Text Festival was that its sheer scale and scope would burn me out – and it did, in the end.

The next publication, with which I am particularly proud, was ‘Maurizio Nannucci: Language and Horizons’ (ISBN 978-8888967523) with essays by me and Sergio Risaliti. This was a comprehensive survey of the work of Italian text artist Maurizio Nannucci, launched to accompany his Text Festival exhibition of the same name and the blue neon text in the Gallery rotunda which became one of the most used images of the Gallery’s ongoing identity. Also for the 2009 Festival there was the publication of ‘The Bury Poems’ curated by me, edited by Phil Davenport, design by Darren Marsh. The idea for this came about by accident. Robert Grenier was ‘headlining’ for the 2005 Festival and an interview had been set up with him, I think with Hester Reeve (HRH.the) – but again that might be misremembered. He was supposed to meet her in the Met Arts Centre café in Bury. However, she got delayed and since he didn’t have a mobile phone, she couldn’t get a message to him to postpone the meeting. So, he sat and waited, during which time he wrote six new poems, based on his experience of the countryside around his hotel in Ramsbottom. As at the time, his voluminous drawn poem output was based primarily on Bolinas, California, so this poetic-geography made the six poems unique. Of course, I acquired them for the Bury collection. But it placed the germ of an idea for what became ‘The Bury Poems’. In addition to Bob’s Six Poems, I commissioned Phil Davenport, Carol Watts, Tony Lopez, Holly Pester, and Geof Huth to write Bury-specific works and included images from Ron Silliman’s neon installation. Davenport did the edit, and I got some poems included too.

Although we didn’t commission/publish them, Ron Silliman found his time in Bury sufficiently inspiring that he wrote “Northern Soul” – dedicated to the festival mascot, Barney – published by Shearsman Books (ISBN 978-1-84861-319-5) and “Wharf Hypothesis” in 2011. The final book related to the Text Festival was “The Text Festivals: Language Art and Material Poetry” published by University of Plymouth Press, edited by Tony Lopez featuring essays by me, Derek Beaulieu, Christian Bök, Carol Watts, Phil Davenport, James Davies, Bob Grenier, Alan Halsey, Holly Pester, Hester Reeve (HRH.the), Liz Collini and Carolyn Thompson.

Text Festivals: Five Actions Plus Time

If the last post was a little too long to wade through, in a nutshell the Text posited that we were in one of those historic moments when different artforms are cross-fertilising, and specifically around language through five modes of operation, namely, parataxis, intertextuality, materialisation, spatialisation, and restricted/constricted processes. In that first iteration I had lumped time-based arts across the latter three practices, but in later explanations I began to refer to the Text’s criteria for inclusion being ‘Five actions plus Time’. The Festival opened with a survey show of work by the recently deceased Bob Cobbing, guest curated by Phil Davenport and Jennifer Cobbing; the sound installation ‘Little Sugar’ by Caroline Bergvall, and the main exhibition I curated simply called the ‘Text’, which spanned the theoretical basis of “art that can be read as poetry and poetry that can be viewed as art.”

Installation view: Bob Cobbing 

The rest of the nine months featured solo exhibitions by Lawrence Weiner, Maurizio Nannucci, Shaun Pickard, Alan Halsey, exhibitions of artist’s books curated by Greville Worthington, different alphabets curated by me; public art from Lawrence Weiner – WATER MADE IT WET and the gallery atrium neon installation (pictured below) by Nannucci.

There were numerous performances from too many poets to mention but headlined by Robert Grenier – the start of a long relationship with Bob that led to Bury having one of the biggest collections of his work, and certainly the biggest outside the USA. If you’re interested in more details of the festival’s activities, I’m pretty sure I blogged about most of it at the time, so it’ll be searchable.

Returning to the observation that the festival’s concept was difficult for some to grasp, I’ll share an anecdote which confirmed to me that we were on the right track, or at least it entertained me greatly at the time. Our Media Relations were handled by the incomparable Catharine Braithwaite. One day, Catharine rang me to say that she had an international arts magazine interested in featuring the festival and that the art journalist wanted to do a phone interview with me. Fine, I thought, we set it up for later in the week. All sounded positive until she cautioned me to be prepared for him because he really knew his stuff, was rigorous and could cut through art-speak nonsense when he heard it. So, the interview started with me duly serious, taking onboard her warning. Even with my explaining the Five Actions analysis, there was a tone in his questions that suggested he was thinking: ‘am I interested in covering this?’; so I fell back on a shorthand formulation I had used in other conversations, saying: “Look, if I program Lawrence Weiner in front of an arts audience, they’ll know who he is; but if I program Ron Silliman with the same audience, they won’t. Similarly, a poetry audience will know who Ron Silliman is, but not Lawrence Weiner.” There was a long silence at the other end of the phone, and then rather sheepishly, the journalist said, “I don’t know who Ron Silliman is.” After that, the interview was smooth sailing.

On to the 2009 Text Festival. After nine months I felt that I had exhausted the subject (and the audience) of the Text – and I was certainly personally exhausted. In anticipation of that, I had arranged a 12-month sabbatical for 2006 – during which I wrote my first poetry book 50 Heads. This came out in 2007 after I returned to Bury. Various review copies were duly sent out and unexpectedly I got calls from different friends saying that Ron Silliman had reviewed it on his world-famous blog.

“While there are poets in the U.K. who are close to langpo personally – Tom Raworth in particular – there has never really been anything you could call a language school, as such, in Britain. I hear this equally as a techno descendant of someone like Prynne, a concept that strikes me as very odd indeed. And a sign that Trehy isn’t really like anyone else at all.

Trehy is an eminently readable poet, tho you have to pay attention as you proceed through each work. He promotes this further with a vocabulary that is large and sometimes technical.” (excerpt)

Preview viewers of Liz Collini wall-drawing

It seemed only polite to thank Ron, so I emailed him. But just staying ‘thanks’ seemed a bit thin, so I threw in, “if you ever fancy performing at the Text Festival, we’d be delighted to have you.” To be clear, I had no intention of doing another festival – it was a spare of the moment throwaway remark. At that point I still felt it had done everything it needed to do. Ron replied almost immediately saying: “I get an invitation to perform in the UK about 3 or 4 times a week, but I guess the Text is the important one, so I’d be pleased to attend.” I don’t remember ever telling Ron that the only reason for the 2009 festival actually happened was simply to host him! That said, I put as much effort into it as the first and it was again a success. For me, the personal moment I savored came on the night Ron performed. I had created a mixed programme for the evening, as was the Text way, opening with some Italian sound works, a Scottish storyteller, German turntablist/sound artist Claus van Bebber, followed by Ron. I was standing alone in the dark with him backstage waiting for him to go on and he said with obvious excitement at the evening, “this is just what I am about.” 

And onto the story of why there was a 2011 festival. As part of the 2009 funding for Ron’s travel, a gig in London was included. I accompanied him down to Birkbeck for the performance. One little anecdote, a handful of people (assuming that the Text must be a biennial) regretted that they had missed the 2007 festival. To which I replied that it had been the best one. Anyway, during drinks after the reading, someone enthusiastically wanted to know when the next festival would be. Admittedly having had too many drinks and flushed with positive vibes, I calculated how quickly I do another, and the date popped up ‘2011’. So there it was.

The smartest summary comes from Derek Beaulieu’s blog at the time: “On April 27 and 28th I will be installing an original concrete poem in the windows of the Bury Art Gallery as part of the Text Festival. In addition to that installation, the festival includes my Prose of the Trans-Canada and my Box of Nothing. The Festival also includes visual poetry from Satu Kaikkonen, Eric Zboya, Geof Huth and a tonne of other international poets; performances by Christian Bok, Ron Silliman, Karri Kokko, Jaap Blonk and more; installation work by Pavel Buchler, Simon Morris and many others. This is the 3rd bi-annual Festival
 and promises to be an incredible affair." This is a link to Derek’s blog about his experience “An irresponsible act of imaginative license” #8: The Text Festival, Part 1. | derek beaulieu's blog

And again, fully satisfied with 2011 festival I was convinced that was it. No More. I found various occasions when I was actually saying out loud there would not be another.

2012-13 my project activity shifted completely to touring exhibitions in China. And then 2014 came. Again, its initiation was triggered by something exterior to my intention. Long story short, Bury restructured the Gallery complex to create a new Sculpture Centre on the ground floor and it needed a sufficiently high profile opening show to establish its credentials in international practice. Who better to launch it than Lawrence Weiner, who had by then a long association with Bury and a number of his works sited around the Borough. (Coincidentally, on the same night he opened in Bury, he also opened shows in Rio and Milan). Of course once the Weiner show was likely, the logic of an accompanying Festival was inevitable. Artistically the Festival was strong and by this one, the audience was knowledgeable and committed, but as Sue had warned me, my health wasn’t at its best and I must admit that I missed a large part of the opening weekend due to my collapse.

I retired in 2019 but would almost certainly programmed a fifth event with a new conception. So it couldn’t happen (and probably wouldn’t have anyway due to COVID), but I have continued to develop the analysis that would take things forward and will be posting these ideas after these commemorative posts.  

The Last International Poetry Dog Day

This would have been the 15th birthday of Barney, the famous Poetry Dog - he missed it by one month. We have been touched by the outpouring of condolence for him. So I thought a last acknowledgement of his status in the Poetry World was a suitable memorial. 

Ron Silliman, Tony Lopez, Tony Trehy, Christian Bök (Text Festival)

Ron Silliman on the Irwell Sculpture Trail

 Ron Silliman's Bury Text was installed yesterday in the Tram station.

Ron Silliman's Text

Ron's neon text extracted from his poem Northern Soul which, I think, is part of Universe, begins production.
www.textfestival.com

Silliman's response to the Text Festival

In case you don't read the Silliman blog, he has put up thoughts about the Festival:
http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/

Back from London

Arrived in the metropolis yesterday in time for lunch with Ron, Will Rowe and Carol Watts, followed by Ron’s workshop at Birkbeck. Ron talking brilliantly and continuously (with questions) for 2 odd hours. Then he, me and Carol went to the London Review of Books for coffee. Then Carol left to sort out the details for the evening, and Ron and I chatted about books and writings and especially the paucity of poetry sections in books shops. I bought Viktor Shklovsky’s Knight’s Move.

Ron’s Birkbeck reading had a more durational feel than his Bury reading because he read only two works: Quindecagon and the registration mark (Blogger won't insert the character as it appears in the book). It was a good size audience and there was a good question and answer session at the end. One of the questions was why it had taken so long for Ron to read in the UK and when would he read again. There has already been such massive interest in the plans for the Text Festival – so I can reveal that I have already begun to shape it and am negotiating with both Ron and Geof Huth to return with new projects. So if anyone out there has any ideas they have for the next one, feel free to propose them to me. After the reading, a group went for an Italian meal, where I mostly chatted to Marianne Eigenheer and Ron about Russia, Mexico, and American politics. And with Carol Watts about the plan to take a Bury Poems style Text Festival-on tour to some US venues. This morning I had an interesting conversation with Patrick Fabian Pannetta, continuing our (now-called) “Proxy Conversation” book project.

This morning before my train, I popped into Tate Modern (which is never a disappointment because I visit it with low expectations). Although I had gone to catch the Rodchenko & Popova and the Roni Horn shows, I got distracted by “Poetry & Dreams”

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?showid=1258 – which I have seen before but, developing recent curatorial thinking from the Text Festival shows, I am now working on an analytical essay on “Curating Poetry”. This will come out in a post Text publication which will hopefully also include essays from Tom Konyves on videopoetry and Geof Huth/Joanne Fitton on Text and Archives, and anyone else I think will fit into it nicely to move the Text Festival dialogue on. Anyway, on inspection, the curatorial principle behind Poetry & Dreams seems to include no relation or concept of poetry except maybe some romantic non-poetics notion that a hang that sort of juxta-floats lyrically around is poetry. As the show is actually a pretext for the Tate to show their Surrealist permanent collection, it seems totally bizarre to not represent the role of the Surrealist poets in the movement. The show is a useful example for my essay of art curators who know fuck all about poetry .

(a la Huth & Silliman) Books received:
Peter Jaeger – rapid eye movement (Reality Street Editions)
Wendy Mulford – The Land Between (Reality Street Editions)

London

Off to London today for Ron Silliman's Birkbeck reading and spending time with Marianne Eigenheer & Patrick Fabian Pannetta discussing future projects. Because of the pressure of organisation of the Text, my blog relied on photographs but I hope to write more thoughtfully on the train and post by tomorrow.

Ron Silliman explains poetry to Barney

Opening Agency of Words

The exhibition opening was a great success (except for me dropping my camera just before it started - so no photos of my own; this is from Nancy Huth - me with Ron and Geof). There were about 100 present and lots of friends. Geof's reading was great and with people in the spaces the curatorial concept still held true. I'll expand on the show and its works when I have the official photos.

A delightful evening with Ron Silliman, Tom Konyves, Geof & Nancy Huth - which Geof has blogged better than I could: http://dbqp.blogspot.com/. - his camera is better too, though this seems to be the only picture of Barney (with GH) in which he isn't a whirling fur shape.

Sue’s menu:
Canapés: smoked salmon and sour cream blinis accompanied with Petillant de Syrah
Pan-fried fillets of Salmon with ginger & chilli spiced ribbons of courgettes and a lemon & parsley dressing accompanied with Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc
Fricassee of spring chicken in a white wine, cream and asparagus sauce with crushed new potatoes accompanied with a Rio Verde Sauvignon Blanc
A trio of strawberry treats: Strawberry & Chocolate meringue; home-made strawberry ice cream and a chilled Strawberry & Chilli cocktail followed by Coffee (and tea for the Americans) and Cloud Berry liqueur

Ron Silliman on the Verb

From Ron's arrival from the US, he went to BBC Radio for an interview and a reading for 'The Verb' http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/theverb/ which I think is broadcast on Friday but worth checking and worth listening to - you'll be able to listen again on the site iplayer.

Text Festival update

Hot news - In addtion to the readings already announced, Ron Silliman will now read with Geof Huth at the opening of Sign of the Times at Bury Museum & Archives on 1 May.