Poesia, traduzione, materializzazione. L’iconotesto come interlinguaggio

This essay intends to investigate some icon-textual forms that descend from the European tradition of visual poetry: verbo-visual collages, photo-texts, up to some particularly radical experiments such as glitch and asemic writing. These hybrid forms could unveil a broader reflection on the relations between intermediality and transnationality of artistic languages: on the one hand, the presence of images and the enactment of a dynamic semiosis could facilitate reception regardless of the reader's mother tongue; on the other hand, it remains essential to highlight the historical-material, pragmatic and cognitive contexts that make possible the decoding of signs. I will focus on one case study, namely, the exhibition The Poetry of Translation (Kunst Meran - Merano Arte, November 13th, 2021-February 13th, 2022) curated by Judith Waldmann. Within this exhibition several international artists have questioned the concept of translation, both from an interlinguistic and intersemiotic perspective, thus involving a plurality of languages and artistic forms. The Poetry of Translation also presents a partial reprise of the exhibition Materializzazione del linguaggio (XXXVIII Venice Biennale, 1978) curated by Mirella Bentivoglio, crucial for highlighting the relationship between verbo-visual poetry and feminist art.