Felipe Boso. "Prax – Cáceres + Asins + Molero + Castillejo + Viladot + Boso + Millán = 7 Autores experimentales", 2011

The book edited by Felipe Boso invites reflection on the historical cannons that have formed around experimental poetry in Spain and its authors. The work includes a prologue by Josep Miquel García (Fundació Guillem Viladot), a text by Felipe Boso, and poems by José Antonio Cáceres, Elena Asins, Herminio Molero, José Luis Castillejo, Guillem Viladot, Felipe Boso and Fernando Millán.

In 1960s Spain poetic discourses began to move away from the social realism that had dominated up to that time and they started to show an interest in submitting language to critical renewal. The new authors put forward a new form of writing and were committed to blurring the lines between genres, applying their experimental activity to painting, music, theatre, poetic action and poetry itself.

Few were the artists who decided to walk against the current in this controversial period, to opt for collective work over individual work and make contact with the European and Latin American avant-garde, in search of complicities. Their undertakings represent the first link in the subsequent development of the new artistic practices.

The poet, translator and critic Felipe Boso played an important role in this process. He published - from Germany, where he lived - in the journal Akzente, the first serious anthology about experimentation in Spain, and also selections in other publications such as Poesía Hispánica and Urogallo, along with exhaustive studies on experimental poetry, all of which were manifestations of his intellectual generosity and his interest in the work of other authors.

Además, aparte de proyectos colectivos, otros autores enfocan su trabajo desde un prisma más personal. Es el caso de Francisco Pino que hace del libro un objeto casi arquitectónico, o de un autor imprescindible para entender la vanguardia poética, Joan Brossa.

During his lifetime, Felipe Boso would publish only “T de trama” and “La palabra Islas,” while his “Poemas concretos” appeared thanks to the effort of his friends, ten years after his death. For this reason the Museum is pleased to present this edition of his book, Prax – Cáceres + Asins + Molero + Castillejo + Viladot + Boso + Millán = 7 Autores experimentales, 2011, which hopes to underscore the value of the experimental approaches and proposals that some poets, visual artists and musicians initiated in the 1960s and 70s, following careful reflection on language, as an attempt to surpass established boundaries.

Participants

Javier Maderuelo
Author, critic and essayist. Member of the Board of Trustees of Museo Reina Sofía

Marisa Giménez Soler
Curator of the exhibition La escritura desbordada: Spanish and Latin American experimental poetry, 1962-1982

Josep Miquel García
Director of Fundació Guillem Viladot “Lo Pardal”

Víctor Infantes
Professor of Spanish Literature at Universidad Complutense de Madrid