A co-publishing a.p.r.e.s éditions / Centre national des arts plastiques.

Bernard Heidsieck, a poet in action.

Or poetry in action.

Or a collection of works by Bernard Heidsieck selected from the Centre national des art plastiques collections and presented by Anne-Laure Chamboissier and Philippe Franck at the Sonopoetics exhibition in Brussels, in 2010.

Or a desire to meet a pioneering artist and explore his unique corpus.

Or testimonials from a circle of artists.

Or a film to affirm the importance and currency of this major corpus.

Or an anthology of original contributions from Bernard Blistène, Jean-Pierre Bobillot, Anne-Laure Chamboissier, Anne-James Chaton, Philippe Franck, John Giorno, Jean-Marie Gleize, Bernard Heidsieck, Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux, Richard Martel and Michèle Métail.

THE DVD:

“Bernard Heidsieck, poetry in action”
A film by Anne-Laure-Chamboissier and Philippe Franck. In collaboration with Gilles Coudert.

This documentary film directed by Anne-Laure Chamboissier and Philippe Franck, in collaboration with Gilles Coudert, brushes an intimate portrait of Bernard Heidsieck, pioneer in the sound poetry movement since 1955 and founder in 1962 of action poetry. The film takes viewers into Heidsieck’s “double life” as an artist and a banker, exploring his work through a series of conversations and seldom-seen audiovisual archives. Interviews with other major figures from sound poetry add to viewers’ understanding. Jean-Pierre Bobillot, Olivier Cadiot, Laurent Cauwet, Anne-James Chaton, Paul-Armand Gette, John Giorno, Bernard Heidsieck, Françoise Janicot, Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux and Jean-Jacques Lebel paint a very lively picture of the history of sound poetry and the current developments.

Anne-Laure Chamboissier curates contemporary art exhibitions. Philippe Franck is an art historian, concept creator and cultural critic, producer, teacher and interdisciplinary artist. Gilles Coudert is a filmmaker, producer and publisher.

THE BOOK:

Texts by Bernard Blistène, Jean-Pierre Bobillot, Anne-Laure Chamboissier, Anne-James Chaton, Philippe Franck, John Giorno, Jean-Marie Gleize, Bernard Heidsieck, Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux, Richard Martel and Michèle Métail.

Bernard Blistène is chief heritage curator and director of the MNAM-CCI at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Jean-Pierre Bobillot is a “noisy poet, nitpicker and boundary pusher” who has published, among others, Bernard Heidsieck: Poésie Action (1996) and Poésie sonore (2009). Anne-Laure Chamboissier curates contemporary art exhibitions and has set up ChamProjects in Brussels. She focuses her research on the question of interdisciplinarity between the fields of visual and sound arts, cinema and literature. Anne-James Chaton is a writer who “knows lots of things.” Philippe Franck is an art historian, exhibition curator, teacher and interdisciplinary artist. He heads Transcultures, Centre of digital and sound cultures in Mons. John Giorno is an artist and poet. Jean-Marie Gleize is a writer, poet, and teacher who founded the Nioques review. Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux is an artist, a teacher and author of L’Acte pour l’art (1988), the first paper in French outlining the history of performance. Richard Martel is an interdisciplinary artist, editor, action art theorist. He runs the Lieu, in Quebec, and the Inter review. Michèle Métail is a poet who shares her work during “oral publications”.