In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the avant-garde movement of visual poetry Poema/Processo (1967), the Maison de la Poésie, located in Basel, Switzerland, presents the exhibition Poema/Processo: vanguard and history.

Due to concretism, the movement emerges as a creative break with the institutionalized communication in the field of literature, poetry and visual arts. Founded by the precursors Wlademir Dias-Pino, Alvaro de Sá, Neide Sá, Moacy Cirne, Falves Silva, among others, it has its first exhibition inaugurated simultaneously in Rio de Janeiro (Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial) and Natal (Sobradinho) in December, 1967. Its first manifesto, published in April 1968 at the “4ª Exposição Nacional de Poema/Processo” [4th National Poem/Process Exhibition] at Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, launched the ideas that guided the group practice and theory, creating a reproducible artistic objective that would meet the needs of information and communication of the masses, based on the logic of immediate consumption. On this occasion, the meaning of the word “poem” has been enlarged to such an extent that it could be referred to as an object or even as a collective performance.

At the invitation of the Maison de la Poésie, and organized by Gustavo Nóbrega, the exhibition will present the initial works of the movement, such as the magazine “Ponto 1” (1967), which consists of a box of inserts in which the poem freed from the support is verified experimentally, the magazine/box “Ponto 2” (1968), the box “Processo 1” (1969), along with the envelope “Vírgula” (1972), that contains collective works that will be displayed on tables of the traditional reading club Lesegesellschaft.