VENENO Magazine (1983-2016)
Francisco Aliseda
03 Dec 2016 - 14 May 2017
VENENO MAGAZINE (1983-2016)
Francisco Aliseda
Showcase Project
3 December 2016 - 14 May 2017
Editor: Francisco Aliseda
Colaborators: VVAA (387 authors in 185 magazines and 33 years of history).
Coordination: Helena López Camacho
VENENO Magazine (1983-2016) is an exhibition exploring over thirty years of this experimental visual poetry journal run and edited by the painter, author of visual poems and phonetic reciter Francisco Aliseda. Tying in with the project, MUSAC will also be publishing Revista VENENO, in which it analyses the context, reach and import of this singular editorial project.
Founded in Palencia in 1983 by Aliseda and his fellow poets Egidio Huerga and Secundino Naves, VENENO came about thanks to their profound interest in poetry and new forms of expression. Produced collaboratively from the very first issue right up until the present day, the collaborators in VENENO include an extensive roster of poets, writers and visual artists both from Spain and further afield, including Gustavo Martín Garzo, Esperanza Ortega, Olvido García Valdés, Eduardo Milán, Antonio Gamoneda, Alberto Díaz Villaseñor, Rafael de Cózar, Pablo del Barco, and Antonio Gómez.
Visual poetry is an artistic form of expression characterised in general, though not exclusively, by the combination of words and images. A crossroads between painting, music, poetry and the visual arts, experimental visual poetry occupies a hybrid space in the art world. VENENO is one of the most far-reaching and influential projects in this discipline, strongly rooted in Castilla y León. Its long-standing experience, with 186 published issues to its credit, mirrors the evolution of visual poetry in Spain, as well as reflecting the contributions of each one of the authors and artists who have collaborated with the journal over its 33 years of existence, tracing the changing poetic, artistic and editorial concerns and areas of interest of a whole period.
In addition, also worth noting is a number of equally germane questions to do with its actual production, such as the fact of being self-run, its experimental character, independent publishing, the combination of literature and visual arts, the use of varying techniques and materials, the exploration of DIY aesthetics and, as could not be otherwise, the very dynamic of the genre of poetry and the whole range of adjectives it is usually associated with: visual, experimental, objectual, concrete, lettrist, phonetic, sound and a long etcetera.
Formally speaking, VENENO is a small eight-page A4 journal. Most of its issues are assembled manually with the inclusion of original details, which explains the short run, usually with a maximum of 500 copies.
On view in the exhibition Revista VENENO (1983-2016) at MUSAC’s Showcase Project are all the 185 issues published to date of VENENO, coupled with an exhaustive exploration of some individual issues through documentary material which affords an insight into the collaborative working dynamic as well as the proliferation of materials, contributions and mock-ups, or documentation and correspondence pertaining to the running of the project.
Furthermore, a new issue of the journal, no. 186, is being presented, published specifically to coincide with the project at the museum, including a short story by José Luis Cancho, a genre being showcased for the first time in the journal.
Francisco Aliseda
Showcase Project
3 December 2016 - 14 May 2017
Editor: Francisco Aliseda
Colaborators: VVAA (387 authors in 185 magazines and 33 years of history).
Coordination: Helena López Camacho
VENENO Magazine (1983-2016) is an exhibition exploring over thirty years of this experimental visual poetry journal run and edited by the painter, author of visual poems and phonetic reciter Francisco Aliseda. Tying in with the project, MUSAC will also be publishing Revista VENENO, in which it analyses the context, reach and import of this singular editorial project.
Founded in Palencia in 1983 by Aliseda and his fellow poets Egidio Huerga and Secundino Naves, VENENO came about thanks to their profound interest in poetry and new forms of expression. Produced collaboratively from the very first issue right up until the present day, the collaborators in VENENO include an extensive roster of poets, writers and visual artists both from Spain and further afield, including Gustavo Martín Garzo, Esperanza Ortega, Olvido García Valdés, Eduardo Milán, Antonio Gamoneda, Alberto Díaz Villaseñor, Rafael de Cózar, Pablo del Barco, and Antonio Gómez.
Visual poetry is an artistic form of expression characterised in general, though not exclusively, by the combination of words and images. A crossroads between painting, music, poetry and the visual arts, experimental visual poetry occupies a hybrid space in the art world. VENENO is one of the most far-reaching and influential projects in this discipline, strongly rooted in Castilla y León. Its long-standing experience, with 186 published issues to its credit, mirrors the evolution of visual poetry in Spain, as well as reflecting the contributions of each one of the authors and artists who have collaborated with the journal over its 33 years of existence, tracing the changing poetic, artistic and editorial concerns and areas of interest of a whole period.
In addition, also worth noting is a number of equally germane questions to do with its actual production, such as the fact of being self-run, its experimental character, independent publishing, the combination of literature and visual arts, the use of varying techniques and materials, the exploration of DIY aesthetics and, as could not be otherwise, the very dynamic of the genre of poetry and the whole range of adjectives it is usually associated with: visual, experimental, objectual, concrete, lettrist, phonetic, sound and a long etcetera.
Formally speaking, VENENO is a small eight-page A4 journal. Most of its issues are assembled manually with the inclusion of original details, which explains the short run, usually with a maximum of 500 copies.
On view in the exhibition Revista VENENO (1983-2016) at MUSAC’s Showcase Project are all the 185 issues published to date of VENENO, coupled with an exhaustive exploration of some individual issues through documentary material which affords an insight into the collaborative working dynamic as well as the proliferation of materials, contributions and mock-ups, or documentation and correspondence pertaining to the running of the project.
Furthermore, a new issue of the journal, no. 186, is being presented, published specifically to coincide with the project at the museum, including a short story by José Luis Cancho, a genre being showcased for the first time in the journal.