The Lettrist Presence in Current Visual Poetry: Serse Luigetti
By De Villo Sloan
“No word is capable of carrying impulses one wants
to send with it.”
- Isidore Isou
Italian visual poet Serse Luigetti ‘s work is an excellent example of my deconstructive asemics theory in practice. Luigetti’s vispo has shown asemic elements for decades. I also note the presence of a Lettrist influence. In this review, I focus on elements of the deconstructive and Lettrist in Serse's work.
Luigetti employs - I conjecture via both knowledge and intuition - the aesthetic of letters and fonts explored by the 20th century Lettrists (and their predecessors). His work is not exclusively Lettrist and we might consider a Post-Lettrist designation in vispo. One of Luigetti’s great skills as a poet is that he has been able to flawlessly synthesize powerful influences - thus “the anxiety of influence” notion was born long ago.
I believe we are at a stage in the evolution of 21st century visual poetry where an acknowledgment of the pervasive presence of 20th century Lettrist influences is appropriate and perhaps beneficial.
Isidore Isou’s (1925-2007) visionary/revolutionary movement in 1940s Paris had a massive impact on filmmakers, artists, writers and others, not to mention generations of concrete and visual poets. Serse Luigetti has filtered the influences through himself.
Many of Luigetti’s asemic symbols and structures involve the decomposition - or even dismemberment - of existing printed language and often the creation of asemics and related forms.
Often these involve a focus on specific letters dismembered in variations and repetitions. Sometimes complete letters survive. The absence of a root text eliminates the possibility that these compositions can be deciphered or “read” in the conventional way.
During the Asemic Front Project, I have admired and viewed closely Luigetti’s approach as deconstructive and Lettrist-influenced. I believe closer examination of his work in this area reveals particularly significant insights.
De Villo Sloan
Elbridge, New York
June 7, 202o
(revised August 7, 2024)
- sSs-
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