“Rotolini di Poesia” (poetry rolls) is a project started by Italian artist Opiemme back in 2003 where the main idea is to bring poetry to the streets and closer to the people: This time, in collaboration with the Gruppo77 association lead by Alessandro Dall’Olio, they took over the streets of Bologna in occasion of the World Poetry day celebrated on March 21st. hanging poems printed on small pieces of rolled up paper all over the city.
Opiemme on his work:
“My experience started in around 1998, writing poems. Suddenly I tried to mix words with other types of visual arts. Renewing its communicative forms was my first aim, even though I wasn’t aware of this at the time. Basically I tried to bring poetry closer to people so that they could read it randomly while walking down the street, or discover a poem in a place where it wasn’t supposed to be.
Sticker and poster art were two solutions I used until 2003 when I came up with a new idea: hanging little pieces of rolled-up paper, that people could take. It works really well in grabbing people’s attention. So much so, that I made 30000 Poetry Scrolls (Rotolini di poesia) for the White Night 2007 in Rome, and for many other festivals. I think I have made more than 200.000 Poetry Scrolls in total, especially for festivals. I have also done poetic installations and performances with other artists especially for Book and Literature Festivals. The streets were about to change the way I worked.”
Below a few images of this very special event by Opiemme.
Images © Opiemme
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
