IRINA MOGA
HOW THE PICTOPOEMS BOOK CAME ABOUT
Tatiana Arsénie and I began experimenting with pictopoems at the end of 2009.
There is a rich tradition surrounding visual poetry and ekphrastic poetry.
One of the early models we had considered was « Le Bestiaire ou cortège D’Orphée », with poetry by Guillaume Apollinaire and drawings by Raoul Dufy - a literary gem.
As we got down to work, however, both of us felt strongly that it was time to forget about models; it was time to "re-invent the wheel" - coming up with a pictopoem concept of our own.
Tatiana had worked on several series of drawings of Berlin, which had earned her praise - and which continue to amaze anyone who gets the chance to view them.
The series of drawings offered us the over-arching theme - the city of Berlin and views of neighbourhoods close to Tatiana's home.
While writing the poems in the book, I felt torn apart between the need to render justice to Tatiana's drawings and the idea that good poetry is never tied to time and space.
That was my conundrum, and how I eventually thought to solve it, is apparent in the book.
You can view some of our pictopoems through the links below:
Unter den Linden - dANDelion Magazine Volume 36, issue i/ii
Reichstag - dANDelion Magazine Volume 36, issue i/ii
The Former Stern Radio Building - qarrtsiluni
